Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder Among Physiotherapists Working in High Morbidity Departments: A Cross-Sectional Study

Purpose: This study's objective was to measure secondary traumatic stress disorder among Saudi Arabian physiotherapists employed in the critical care, neurology, cardiology, pulmonology, and mental health fields. Also, to identify the factors related to secondary traumatic stress. Methods: Between July 2021 and June 2022, a cross-sectional study involving physiotherapists from the critical care, emergency, neurology, cardiology, pulmonology, and mental health departments was carried out. Data were collected from the participants by using the validated Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale (STSS). Appropriate Statistical analysis (bivariate and multivariate) was carried using SPSS 21.0 software to analyse the data. Results: We quantified the prevalence of secondary traumatic stress, among 201 healthcare professionals (physiotherapists) in total were assessed; of them, 23.4% worked in the medical/surgical and neurosurgical departments and 5% in the critical care and emergency departments. Twenty-four percent of the participants slept less than five hours each day, and 26.4% worked more than 45 hours per week. Our study subjects had mild STS in 25.4% of cases, moderate stress in 15.9%, high STS in 15.9% and severe STS in 30.9% of cases. The intrusion score (mean = 11.65), avoidance score (mean = 5.5), arousal score (mean = 4.1) and total mean score of 42.50 of the STSS were significantly different across the age groups, marital status and years of experience of study participants. The regression analysis shows age groups and severe stress were independently related to the total STS scores. Conclusion: The study has found out higher level of STS among physiotherapists which highlights the necessity for a variety of interventional programs to be implemented in hospital settings in order to enhance communication abilities, lessen emotional discomfort, and apply relaxing techniques.