Severity of Vicarious Trauma Amongst Medical Workers: A Case of Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya

Irene Cherotich Tarigo, M.A. in Clinical Psychology; and Josephine Ndanu, Ph.D., United States International University - Africa

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the severity of vicarious trauma among medical workers. A total of 130 (53.1% female and 46.9% male) health workers from Kenyatta National Teaching and Referral hospital in Nairobi Kenya participated in the study achieving a response rate of 76% from the 160 questionnaires that were administered. Systemic random sampling was used to select the participants. To determine the severity of vicarious trauma, Vicarious Trauma Scale (VTS) was used. The finding of the study showed that 10.0% of the medical workers had high levels of vicarious trauma, 49.2% had moderate levels of vicarious trauma and 40.8% had low levels of vicarious trauma. The overall mean severity level of vicarious trauma was 31.3 (SD = 8.65). This study recommends that periodical work-related training and workshops be carried out, especially in relation to the effects of vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue among medical workers.

Keywords: Vicarious trauma, severity, medical workers, posttraumatic disorder, compassion fatigue, burnout, compassion satisfaction