Emotional responses to potentially traumatic events: An interpretative qualitative analysis of high-risk professionals in relation to their social structures

Professionals in emergency-focused environments are taught to prioritize emergencies over their own emotions and trained to suppress their own emotional reactions. High-risk professionals in a vertical social structure, such as police officers, military personnel, career firefighters, and perioperative nurses, also tend to develop an us-versus-them mentality with emotional distance from patients or civilians.