A one-hour VA course that keeps burnout and secondary traumatic stress apart
- The National Center for PTSD of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs lists this course in its free continuing education catalogue; it is self-paced online training, takes 1 hour and is rated Basic.
- Users assess their own levels of burnout and secondary traumatic stress first, then work through coping strategies for each, with interactive exercises, clinical vignettes, handouts and tips on when and how to seek help.
- The four objectives are to define burnout, secondary traumatic stress and related terms such as compassion fatigue and differentiate them from general stress; identify at least two personal values tied to work with PTSD patients; recall two to four brief behavioral and psychological strategies; summarize practical implementation strategies such as reminders.
- CE/CME credit is offered for ANCC, APA, ASWB, ACCME, NBCC and other organizations after a post-test, via TRAIN for clinicians outside VA (an account is required) and TMS for VA staff; the course page does not state the number of credits. The course was created on 26 August 2016, the page was last updated on 27 July 2026.
The National Center for PTSD built this course in 2016 and still offers it free; its page was last updated in July 2026. The authors are Robyn Walser, Katherine Juhasz, Patricia Watson and Katharine S. Edwards. It takes an hour.
Self-assessment first, then strategies
The course starts with self-assessment. Before any technique appears, users rate their own burnout and secondary traumatic stress. Coping strategies follow, behavioral and psychological, offered for each condition separately and illustrated with clinical vignettes and handouts. One objective asks the learner to name at least two personal values connected to work with PTSD patients. Another covers how to keep using the strategies once the hour is over, with reminders as the example. The course closes on when and how to seek help. Credit requires a post-test on TRAIN, and the course page names the accrediting bodies but gives no credit count.
Two problems, two remedies
The first objective is the one I would assign to every supervisee. In my reading, burnout grows out of caseload and the way the job is organized, while secondary traumatic stress comes from exposure to clients' trauma through their accounts and can look like PTSD, with intrusive images, avoidance and arousal. Clinicians often file the second under the name of the first. They take a week off or cut admin hours, then meet the same images after the first heavy session back. A mislabelled problem gets a remedy for something else. Before choosing what to change, I would put the self-assessment question to myself in plain form: does the job drain me, or what I hear in it?
Many clinicians treat secondary traumatic stress as ordinary burnout and pick a remedy for a problem they do not have.
The course was created in 2016, and the page does not say whether its content changed at the July 2026 update. The number of CE credits is shown only inside TRAIN, which requires an account.