Although being trauma-informed is an assumed philosophical underpinning within the nursing profession, there is little evidence demonstrating the expanse of such claims in various aspects of nursing knowledge and practice. Furthermore, being trauma informed may seem more relevant to certain specialties, such as psychiatric nursing or critical care. Since nurses may be affected by others' traumatic experiences as well as their own; and may retraumatize patients through their own actions and biases, it is imperative that all nurses are trauma informed (Foli & Thompson, 2019).
Are all nurses trauma informed? What does it really mean to be trauma informed? How do nurses practice trauma informed care? These are some of the questions that this survey will tackle! Please complete the Nurses Trauma Informed Care (TIC) survey to advance nursing science and practice in this area.
Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
In my own words, it means acknowledging that how patients respond to their care, and respond to you as a caregiver, is affected by trauma that has occurred in their own lives. It can be actual trauma (verbal, emotional, physical abuse; PTSD, abandonment as a child) or it can be historical trauma (such as historical abuses inflicted upon indigenous people, or people of color).
If a patient is being challenging, difficult, combative, etc, it's better to ask "What has happened to them in their past to cause them to react this way?" than to ask "W T F is wrong with this person and why are they being such an asshole?"
edited to add: I literally laughed out loud to discover that my "W T F" was autocorrected to "WOW!"
Vickye Hayter
1 Article; 7 Posts
What does it mean to be trauma informed?