Healing the Healers Campaign

A Hidden Emergency

Inside Minnesota’s busiest emergency department, experiencing a single traumatic event can be manageable, but repeated exposure compounds the psychological toll.

• Staff distress often stems from chronic exposure to suffering. Often, there is no time to recover between events, there’s a lack of time for basic self-care, and an absence of co-regulating relationships, which can spill into life outside of work.
• Emergency providers experience high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder burnout.
• Disproportionate rates of suicidal ideation and attempts. In recent years, HHS has lost three care providers.
• With ED nursing turnover nearly doubling nationwide in the past five years, there is a need to support staff wellbeing and to aid retention through consistent, trauma-informed care.

A New Kind of First Responder: Critical Incident Support Psychologist

The number one request from our Trauma Care Teams is to hire a Critical Incident Support Psychologist dedicated to providing real-time, proactive emotional support for staff during and in the months following high-stress events, such as the recent mass shootings in Minneapolis this August.

• The role is proactive and consistent, not just reactive to acute incidents, helping staff “do the work it takes to do the work."
• The psychologist will provide real-time emotional support, consultation, and education to reduce isolation and promote resilience.
• The position will be embedded in the ED, with a private office near clinical spaces for easy access. It will be integrated into the existing Critical Incident Support (CIS) infrastructure.
• This role would spend a large portion of its dedicated time responding to staff needs, but would be activated to respond across the health system when needed.
• While continuous support is essential, 24/7 coverage is not feasible. Creative scheduling and team-based coverage will be used to maximize availability.
• Other CIS team members will support this dedicated lead psychologist to ensure sustainability and the role must remain strictly staff-focused, with patient engagement only under exceptional circumstances to preserve emotional and cognitive availability for staff.