Objectives: To identify the incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder experienced\nby nurses as a result of a natural disaster, and its relationship to personality and\ncoping style. Design and Sample: A descriptive correlational design was used to\nexamine the relationships between and among the variables using an anonymous\nonline survey. Measures: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was measured using\nthe PTSD-8 [1]. The Brief COPE [2] was used to measure coping style. Personality\nwas measured utilizing the State Trait Personality Inventory [3]. Participants\nanswered demographic questions such as gender and age, and how they were affected\nby the storm. Results: Over 19% percent of the nurse participants met the\ncriteria for PTSD. The significant predictors of PTSD were the personality characteristics\nof state-anxiety, state-trait and trait depression, and the coping strategies of\nactive coping, denial, acceptance, instrumental support, behavioral disengagement,\nventing and planning. The final regression model explained 90.7% of the variance in\nhigh PTSD-8 score. Conclusions: The findings of this study support the literature\nand the researchers� belief, that there is a relationship among coping, personality,\nand PTSD. More research is needed to understand the individual coping mechanisms\nthat nurses utilize during times of stress and how they are related to personality\nand PTSD.
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