Augment Nursing School and Workplace Experience by Promoting Psychological Safety, Compassion Satisfaction and Joy in Work

Chapter Six presents an overview of how trauma-informed educational processes ensure that student nurses feel safe and supported in an ideal learning environment. Strategies that promote psychological safety are recommended followed by measures to foster compassion satisfaction and joy in work. Psychological safety consists of a civil and respectful place for learning to occur. Compassion satisfaction is derived from the gratification experienced by caregivers when caring for others, and joy in work consists of positive components in the work environment. Nursing students are a risk group for trauma, and they identify the following situations as sources of trauma, individual-related interpersonal experiences; those related to their role as students; trauma related to institutional and organizational exposure; and stressors associated with the community. <i>The Four Core Assumptions of Trauma-informed Care</i>  are used as a guide to implementing psychological safety in nursing school and include specific measures for the classroom, simulation, and clinical settings. Those directly related to high-fidelity simulation include actions to make students feel safe before, during, and after each session. The positive feelings and six core assumptions associated with compassion satisfaction, and the role that self-compassion and worklife balance play are featured. Key aspects of the work environment that have the greatest impact on the well-being of nurses working in critical care consist of adequate staffing, meaningful recognition, and effective decision-making. Student nurses with a history of trauma can experience compassion satisfaction if they are able to identify with some of the positive aspects associated with being a trauma survivor. If new nurses are adequately supported by their employers they experience less stress, and increased fulfillment in their jobs. There are valuable justifications for creating joy in work. A focus on joy enhances the work experience, increases employee engagement, benefits the organization, and improves patient outcomes. Making the workplace happy is a shared responsibility, where everyone is expected to do their best work. Meaningful connection to other people is important where teamwork, cooperation, and a sense of camaraderie are ideal. Two specific forms of governance that promote joy in work are participatory and servant leadership. Psychological personal protective equipment (PPE) consists of individual and system-wide measures that support and safeguard the mental health of employees. Two Narrative Case Studies were presented.

In the first one, a student nurse became re-traumatized when listening to a detailed story of someone’s traumatic experience. The second Narrative Case Study revealed how a new nurse considered leaving his high-acuity job because of a lack of appreciation. The following five learning activities were proposed, exploring assumptions about constructive feedback; ways to professionally express appreciation; understanding how you handle mistakes; creating a self-inventory to assess work-life balance; and incorporating the ten characteristics of servant leadership into practice. At the end of the Chapter, specific strategies were recommended to build college students’ self-confidence.