| Summary: | The ambulance nurse encounters repeatedly in her daily work situations of high stress, in which she must face and deal with events outside the range of normal human experience. Stress reactions can be seen as a normal reaction for those who have experienced a traumatic experience. Many nurses have learnt how to deal with this in their everyday work, but by some, this stress will be prolonged with an increased risk of developing depression, drug and alcohol abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is important for ambulance nurses to have strategies to cope with the experiences after traumatic events, thus preventing prolonged stress problems. The aim of the study was to illuminate the ambulance nurses' experiences and coping of traumatic events in service. The study had a qualitative approach, where ten semi-structured interviews with ambulance nurses was carried out on two ambulance stations in central and northern Sweden. The results revealed four categories that emerged from the interviews; unmanageable when lack of experience, stress and helplessness at the loss of control, affected easier when associating with yourself and secondary experiences of traumatic events. The result also shows that a traumatic event is a subjective, individual experience that is changeable. Conversations with colleagues and expressing feelings during coffee breaks were seen as a first step in the coping process of the event and were significant for how the further handling would turn out. What emerged clearly in the study was that the ambulance nurse herself should define what a traumatic event is and be given the means and opportunity to handle her experience. Validerat; 20130619 (global_studentproject_submitter)
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