journal_vol49no3 - 103

Secondary Traumatic Stress in RHDs
After this experience, she began to reconsider her career goals and what she valued
in a career path and reflected on what was important to her in the next position. " [I want
to] make enough money to have a home, have a life, be able to travel, have a job that I
could work less than 50 hours a week, and have work/life separation. " As a consequence
of not finding this kind of opportunity within residence life, she moved into student
conduct work. Her happenstance interactions encouraged her to pursue new opportunities
with significantly reduced chances of encountering after-hours crisis situations.
DISCUSSION
According to Krumboltz's (2009) Happenstance Learning Theory, singular or similar
repetitive kinds of interactions confirm, solidify, or change career directions of individuals.
Many of the participants in this study entered the field for the same reason, but
they had different reactions to the same interactions.
While crisis management has always been part of the RHD role (Flory, 2017), the
situations they are involved in are increasingly more complex and emotionally taxing
(Lynch, 2019). Since, the mental health concerns of undergraduate students continue
to increase with each incoming class (Binkley & Fenn, 2019; Lipson et al., 2018;
Prince, 2015), the crisis management challenge for RHDs continues to escalate. RHDs
are often on the front lines of a crisis. When they must provide support not only to the
residents but also to an RA demonstrating suicidal behavior, their efforts are complicated
by the supervisor-supervisee relationship.
The emotionally challenging situation of supervising an RA who is exhibiting suicidal
ideation or behavior is a chance event that unexpectedly presses the RHD into
service. All 10 participants felt that they had successfully managed the situation by
investing a significant amount of time and emotional labor. However, only one of the
participants indicated that they would choose an adjusted career plan that would move
them outside of higher education. For many of the others, the experience of providing
support to an RA exhibiting suicidal behavior confirmed their desire to pursue future
positions that would allow them to enhance and expand their support. As Mindy explained,
supervising an RA with suicidal ideation gave her " the confidence to go out
and to keep going with that dream " of being a dean of students because she realized
" this is where I'm meant to be. " For others, the experience created considerable stress
and caused them to consider an adjusted career path. Tanya had originally wanted to
become a housing director as her long-term goal, but due to some of her experiences
supervising an RA experiencing suicidal ideation, she became less sure about her future
path in higher education. Though she still wants to focus on mental health issues,
she wants to do this in a role that doesn't involve crisis management.
The narratives within the findings highlight several implications for practice.
Participants acknowledged the importance of having a supportive and
competent supervisor, which is consistent with previous research highlighting
that effective supervision can reduce the stress and attrition of RHDs.
100 The Journal of College and University Student Housing

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