Alarmingly high percentages of secondary posttraumatic stress have been reported in several nursing domains such as critical care and emergency nursing, oncology, pediatric nursing, mental health nursing, and midwifery. The purpose of this review is to examine and describe nurses' emotional responses in the face of their exposure to patients' trauma. Lack of understanding of the dynamics of trauma may limit nurses' ability to interact in a meaningful and safe way with patients and their families. Spirituality can be a precious compass in the long-term journey of resolving feelings of grief and loss at work and of building a strong professional identity.

Purpose The aim of this study was to investigate compassion fatigue (CF) and compassion satisfaction (CS) in nursing care providers in COVID-19 units. Methods A mixed-method study with 105 nurses. Results 23% of participants reported high CF risk while 77% expressed high to moderate potential for CS. Adequate preparation/education, clear and accountable leadership, and team sharing of feelings, experiences, and responsibilities during the transition in the COVID-19 unit helped participants to deal with overwhelming anxiety which if unattended could bring about frustration and long-lasting feelings of powerlessness. Practical Implications In the face of the present and future pandemics, there is a clear need to prepare healthcare organizations and nursing care providers to cope with the emotional content of public health emergencies while protecting themselves and avoid absorbing unmanageable emotions.

Maternity and gynecology professionals are exposed to distressing events, trauma and suffering that may trigger compassion fatigue. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of compassion fatigue/secondary traumatic stress (CF/STS), burnout (BO) and compassion satisfaction (CS) in maternity and gynecology care providers. The Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL R-IV) and a demographic and work-related characteristics questionnaire were distributed to 121 certified nurses, midwives and nurse/midwife assistants in 3 public hospitals in Greece. The majority of participants were at the high-risk category for CF/STS (73.9%) while only 19.8% and 5% of nurses expressed high potential for CS and BO, respectively. Awareness of the factors associated with CF may help nurses to prevent or offset the development of this condition. A compassionate organizational culture, clinical supervision and on-going education may protect care providers from absorbing or internalizing unmanageable emotions which may lead to compassion fatigue and also help them to gain a deeper understanding of their communication and interactions during the emotionally laden moments of maternity and gynecology care.

Background: There is an increasing trend of door locking practices in acute psychiatric care. The aim of the present study was to illuminate the symbolic dimensions of doors in Greek mental health nurses’ experiences of open and locked working spaces. Results: A sequential mixed-method designexplored the experiences of nurses working in both open and locked psychiatric acute care units. Participants experiences revealed four types of doors related to the quality of recovery-oriented care: (a) the open door, (b) the invisible door, (c) the restraining door, and (d) the revolving door. Open doors and permeable spacesgenerated trust and facilitated the diffusion of tension and the necessary perception of feeling safe in order to be involved in therapeutic engagement. When the locked unit was experienced as a caring environment, the locked doors appeared to be “invisible”. The restraining doors symbolized loss of control, social distance and stigma echoing the consequences of restrictingpeople’s crucial control over spaceduring the COVID-19 pandemicin relation toviolence within families, groups and communities. The revolving door (service users’ abscondence/re-admission) symbolised the rejection of the offered therapeutic environment and was a source of indignation and compassion fatigue in both open and locked spaces attributed to internal structural acute care characteristics (limited staffing levels, support, resources and activities for service users) as well as ‘locked doors’ in the community (limited or no care continuity and stigma). Conclusions: The impact of COVID-19 restrictions on people’s crucial control of space provides an impetus for erecting barriers masked by the veil of habit and reconsidering the impact of the simple act of leaving the door open/locked to allow both psychiatric acute care unit staff and service users to reach their potential.

Addiction treatment centers often fail to involve families in treatment. The aim of the present study was to explore the challenges that Greek mental health professionals encounter in their work with parents of drug and alcohol abusers. A qualitative study design was adopted, and five focus group discussions were conducted with 27 drug and alcohol professionals. The thematic analysis of their accounts revealed the key difficulties that professionals encounter in their collaboration with parents that included parental lack of involvement or over-engagement in treatment, unrealistic expectations, ambivalence or opposition to change, ethical dilemmas, and alliance issues, as well as collaboration challenges among therapists. Findings highlight the challenges of a family approach in the treatment of addiction, and underscore the value of clinical supervision in addition to specialized training, to help professionals work on their anxiety, anger, guilt, prejudices, and deception, when engaging parents in the treatment of their addicted child.

The risk of compassion fatigue (CF) for professionals who support and care for individuals and families facing the dual burden of addiction and trauma has been recently recognized. The aim of this mixed methods study was to investigate CF/secondary traumatic stress and compassion satisfaction (CS) in addiction nursing care providers. The Professional Quality of Life Scale was distributed to 21 addiction nurses and 29 nurse assistants in the alcohol and drug dependency centers of a psychiatric hospital in Greece. High CF risk was reported in 22% of participants, whereas 46% expressed high-to-moderate potential for CS. Participants described the long transition from compassion frustration or disengagement at the beginning of their career to CS at later stages. Learning to be compassionate entailed finding the right distance, redefining therapeutic role and expectations, and containing feelings and experiences. Being able to experience CS involved getting satisfaction from small changes, personal and professional growth, and self-care. A compassionate organizational culture, clinical supervision, and ongoing education may protect addiction professionals from absorbing or internalizing unmanageable emotions, which may lead to CF and also help them to gain a deeper understanding of their communication and interactions with individuals fighting addiction.