The role of social support in debriefing interventions for hospital healthcare workers

Few researchers have examined how to support hospital healthcare workers who have experienced a traumatic incident while working. However, recent investigations have suggested social support can be a protective factor against poor mental health outcomes for healthcare workers dealing with a healthcare crisis. This study set out to examine healthcare workers’ perceived levels of social and organizational support, psychological demands, and absenteeism after attending a group meeting for healthcare workers who recently experienced a traumatic incident at work.

In this study, 124 hospital healthcare workers attended a group meeting to help them deal with a traumatic incident at work. The healthcare workers were given support through either the Critical Incident Stress Debriefing framework or the Response, Resiliency, Resources framework. Both frameworks seek to support healthcare workers in a variety of ways, but the methods in supporting the workers vary. Before and after attending these meetings, healthcare workers filled out surveys regarding their perceived levels of social and organizational support.

Results from this study indicate that both Critical Incident Stress Debriefing and Response, Resiliency, Resources as developed may not provide the social and organizational support healthcare workers could benefit from after experiencing a traumatic incident at work. In the future, administration and other organizational leadership should consider these findings when designing group debriefing meetings to support hospital healthcare workers following traumatic incidents in the workplace.