Students entering universities may have a variety of traumatic experiences such as violence, death, abuse, mass shootings, car crashes or accidents, and illness that have long-term effects on their mental well-being and might lead to severe forms of mental illnesses [1, 2]. A traumatic event is an incident that causes physical, emotional, spiritual, or psychological harm and has a negative impact on a person’s attitude, behavior, or other aspects of functioning [3, 4]. The unexpected death of a loved one, family violence, unwanted sexual attention, and sexual assault were the most common traumatic events experienced and reported by university students (85%) [5]. Students who suffer from a traumatic event may feel threatened, anxious, frightened, sad, or angry. Moreover, they may cry frequently, become irritable, have difficulty concentrating and sleeping, as well as continuously think about what happened, and become isolated from family and friends [4, 6]. Furthermore, no clear statistics on traumatic events experienced by Jordanian undergraduate students have been published in the last 20 years.

Psychological first-aid (PFA) is a set of helping actions used to mitigate initial traumatic distress and assist in short-and long-term adaptation in ways that respect the person’s dignity, culture, and abilities [7, 8]. PFA is an evidence-based supportive approach used to support survivors after exposure to an incident of a disaster, or a traumatic event, and it aims to promote coping and adaptive functioning [9, 10]. The potential value of PFA training emphasizes educating and training leaders in the public, on how to deal effectively with people and students when they experience traumatic events. Therefore, laypeople such as academicians can reduce delays in early intervention if they are fully aware and competent in managing the effect of traumatic events [11, 12]. Academicians have been pushed to embrace new roles and accept greater obligations, including providing psychological support as front liners for students at risk or experiencing traumatic events [13]. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated a greater demand for faculty members to provide psychological assistance to their students and to be able to use their online courses as a source of psychosocial help [14]. However, the question of whether academics are willing to provide acceptable and necessary psychological requirements for their students is invalid and has not been thoroughly investigated. This study emphasizes the efficacy of training faculty members to provide PFA for students experiencing traumatic events.

A systematic review conducted by Forthal et al. [15], which included nine studies, revealed that mental health first-aid yielded a positive impact on trainees’ knowledge and competencies in managing traumatic events. Further studies supported the evidence that psychological first-aid training can promote laypersons’ competency, attitude, knowledge, and helping behaviors [16, 17]. According to Zhang and colleagues [18], both PFA-related knowledge and competencies were significantly improved after introducing PFA training in academic faculty. Kılıç and Sims¸ eks [19] had proven the effectiveness of PFA training on traumatic preparedness for undergraduate students and suggested integrating PFA as part of the curriculum. Thus, the unintentional omitting effects of traumatic events may produce psychological stress and dysfunction among these age categories [20]. In addition, establishing support is a social responsibility that should include family members, friends, and social workers [9, 21].

This is a pioneering study conducted in the Arab world addressing the use of PFA training programs directed at academic faculty members’ knowledge and competencies in dealing with undergraduate students experiencing traumatic events. This study will prove beneficial to society, considering that PFA plays a vital role in science today. The greater prevalence of symptoms of a traumatic background among university students justifies the need for a more effective demand for PFA program training for life-changing teaching approaches. Researchers assume that there are ways to minimize the potential impact that an emergency or traumatic situation may have on university students. Psychological first-aid (PFA) is one approach for reducing negative mental consequences [10].

Fifty-five academic faculty members met the inclusion criteria. Twelve academic faculty members refused to participate in the study for personal reasons. Forty-three academic faculty members agreed to participate, signed the consent form to participate, and received the PFA training program. Therefore, 43 academic faculty members formed the sample of this study and were included in the analysis.

Innovation and advanced technology in education at various levels of academia have forced academicians to adopt new roles and assume more responsibilities toward their students. The COVID-19 pandemic showed a greater need for faculty members to psychologically support their students and be able to use their online courses as one main psychosocial support. However, whether academicians are willing to provide appropriate and needed psychosocial needs for their students is not valid and has not been investigated adequately. This study emphasizes the efficacy of training faculty members to provide PFA for students experiencing traumatic events. The results of this study showed that faculty members have a low level of PFA-related knowledge and competencies before conducting the PFA training program. However, the psychological first aid-training program has significantly improved PFA-related knowledge and competencies. Although it seems logical that those who received training will have an increment of knowledge and competencies related to PFA, the greater inference of this study sustains the notion of the need to have trained faculty members due to evidence at baseline where they reported a low level of knowledge and competency. Moreover, the study added that the assumed role for faculty members to use psychosocial support and minimal psychological PFA intervention would be a significant enhancement of their role and might contribute to saving the lives of students who are at high risk and might be mentally exhausted due to the traumatic effects. In particular, the content of the training, which aimed at reforming and strengthening the faculty members’ ability to deal with undergraduate students experiencing traumatic events, might have alarmed the faculty members to assume their additional roles as significant supportive persons and role models for students who they trust and listen to. As hypothesized, faculty members’ knowledge and competencies related to PFA have improved directly in the post-training program.

The study findings supported the previous literature regarding the association between knowledge and skill of the individual's ability to deal with traumatic events [18]. The PFA training program used in this study has bifocal benefits, increasing the level of knowledge about psychological first-aid and enhancing the level of competency in dealing with students facing traumatic events [24]. Such particular information has been addressed by Movahed et al. [25], who linked PFA training to providers’, levels of knowledge and competency in helping individuals experiencing traumatic events. This study, on the other hand, supports previous efforts that using such training has contributed to improving the knowledge and skills of professional and non-professional health personnel [26-28]. It is important to mention that the need for training seems to be for all those who might be in the position and are required directly or indirectly to provide psychosocial support. Mental health and psychosocial support are essential for everyone. Therefore, all those, whether in academic or non-academic settings, should be trained in PFA and psychosocial support skills.

According to Lee and colleagues [13], faculty members might act and assume the role of front liners for students at risk or suffering traumatic events. This infers that the lack of skills and knowledge of faculty members to manage such a situation might jeopardize the situation and endanger the lives of students. Being able, at least, to use the minimal level of skills, find and identify those in need of psychological care and make the appropriate advice of referral might save the lives of students. For instance, asking students to recount some of the details of their traumatic experiences, taking time to be sure if it is safe to approach the scene of a traumatic event, even if you must act urgently, telling them the story of someone else you just helped so they know they are not alone, giving any reassurance that would help them feel better, being sure to say only what you know and not to make up information that you do not know, judging the person’s actions and behavior so they would not make the same mistake next time, telling an affected person how they should be feeling, practicing self-care by taking regular breaks, and talking with someone you trust about your experience, etc. The researchers in this study support the psychological support role of the faculty members and do not limit their role to material endorsement and teaching. They are willing to assume their roles as role models and knowledgeable persons willing to provide assistance and show understanding. This is one reason behind proposing the PFA-training program to faculty members to ensure the improvement of PFA-related knowledge and competencies in dealing with students experiencing traumatic events and being able to intervene timely and appropriately.

Based on this study training program, which integrated various teaching methods, faculty members have been equipped with higher knowledge and the ability to deal with students experiencing traumatic events. The study indicated that the training program was effective in promoting faculty members’ knowledge and competencies in PFA to deal with students who have experienced traumatic events. The merit of our training program was particularly achieved through using a variety of teaching methods that would build the basis for giving psychological support to those students affected by traumatic events. Furthermore, this study found that the ages and length of the academic experience of academic staff may not be influential in improving knowledge and competency in dealing with PFA instances. Thus, PFA is an extremely useful resource for faculty and should be implemented across educational settings regardless of the academic staff’s age or length of academic experience.