A Middle-Range Theory of Nurses' Psychological Trauma

Vicarious trauma, secondary trauma, and workplace violence are the common forms of psychological trauma associated with nurses. Additional areas of nurses' trauma have not been adequately described, defined, or conceptually organized in the literature. In this article, a new middle-range theory of nurses' psychological trauma is presented with a novel discourse of nurse-specific traumas, theoretical statements, and outcomes of psychological traumas that are unique to nurses and the professional worlds in which they live. A middle-range theory is forwarded so that future scholars may test this theory and derive implications for practice, education, policy, and research.