Staff Support in the Healthcare Setting 

Healthcare has become a high stress environment and the effects of acute, chronic, and cumulative stress on healthcare professionals has become increasingly obvious. This program is designed to explore the types of stressors in the healthcare environment; appropriate stress management and critical incident interventions in the healthcare setting; important modifications of interventions and services; mechanisms to provide staff support; team development considerations; implementation of a crisis support, CISM, or peer support program; and personal coping techniques.

This program is an important building block for any healthcare professional who wishes to explore the implementation of a crisis support, critical incident stress, or peer support program in their organization or a in a multi-hospital setting. This program supplements the Individuals Crisis Intervention and Peer Support and the Group Crisis Intervention courses.

Program Highlights

• Critical incidents in the healthcare setting
• Challenges in providing CISM services
• CISM team interventions that are most effective
• CISM intervention and process issues
• Designing a CISM team for a healthcare organization
• 3 types of stressors in the healthcare setting
• The nature of givers and the implications for crisis support
• Adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies
• Potential administrative and legal issues
• Considerations in CISM team development

About the Instructor

Patricia L. Tritt, RN, MA is the Director of EMS and Trauma for HealthONE in Denver, Colorado.  She has been involved in Emergency Medical Services and Trauma systems for over twenty-five years.  Pat is responsible for the administration of a comprehensive EMS education program for all levels of prehospital providers, an EMS medical direction system for both metropolitan and rural areas, and she provides administrative direction for a Level I Trauma Center.  Her experience and interests include program development and management.  In 1985, she organized the Mayflower Crisis Support Team and continues as Team Coordinator.  She also has coordinated the Colorado Crisis Support Network since inception in 1988.  Pat is an ICISF faculty member for the Group Crisis Intervention, Advanced Group Crisis Intervention, Assisting Individuals in Crisis, Strategic Response to Crisis, and Grief Following Trauma courses.  Pat has trained crisis support teams across the United States and has presented training programs in Canada and Australia.  She is a Certified Trauma Responder and a contributing author on stress and EMS issues for numerous emergency services texts.  Pat has received: recognition from the State of Colorado for lifetime achievement and contributions to EMS: the C. J. Shanaberger Award; the 9 Who Care Award for her contributions as a leader of volunteer services in Colorado; the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation Cofounders Award for Collaborative Outreach in the Field of Crisis Response; and the Third Annual Daniel L. Storer, MD Award for lifetime contributions to the EMS professions.