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Pediatric Medical Traumatic Stress
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  • Trauma-informed pediatric care

    What is Pediatric Medical Traumatic Stress?

    • The basics
    • Prevalence & course
    • Traumatic stress symptoms
    • Risk factors
    • Understanding the family's experience
    • Key research findings

    How to Provide Trauma-Informed Care

    • The basics
    • D-E-F framework
    • Levels of risk and trauma-informed care
    • Timeline for trauma-informed care
    • Referral to mental health care
    • Addressing health disparities
    • Developmental considerations
    • Cultural considerations

    Self Care & Secondary Trauma

    • The basics
    • Self care tips
    • Organizational support
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    • The healthcare team
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    • Pre-hospital providers
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    Patient Education

    Patient Education

    • For parents & caregivers
    • For children & teens

    Screening & Assessment

    Screening & Assessment

    • The basics
    • Find screening & assessment tools
    • Screening after pediatric injury
    • Psychosocial Assessment Tool (PAT)
    • Acute Stress Checklist (ASC-Kids)
    • Family Illness Beliefs Inventory (FIBI)

    Intervention

    Intervention

    • The basics
    • Surviving Cancer Competently (SCCIP)
    • Cellie Coping Kit

    Trauma-Informed Care

    Trauma-Informed Care

    • The basics
    • TIC Provider Survey
    • Observation Checklist - Pediatric Resuscitation

    COVID-19

    COVID-19

    • COVID-19
    • Resources for healthcare staff
    • COVID-19 Exposure and Family Impact Scales (CEFIS)
    • Helping my child cope

    Resources

    Resources

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  • For Patients and Families
    • Coping with injury or illness
    • Sleep
    • Pain
    • Behavior
    • Worries & fears
    • Quiet or withdrawn
    • School
    • Siblings
    • Parents
    • Need more help?
    • Family voices

Organizational Support to Prevent Secondary Traumatic Stress

Secondary traumatic stress must be addressed structurally as well as individually.

Because secondary traumatic stress is a hazard for all who work in the healthcare setting, managers, supervisors, and institutions at large must partner with staff to develop ways to regularly combat the potential for secondary traumatic stress, in order to promote staff health and well-being.

Institutional strategies include:

  • work place self-care groups
  • self-report screening for staff
  • measures that promote work life balance such as flexible scheduling

Organizational staff wellness programs and employee assistance programs also have a role in reducing the impact of secondary traumatic stress among staff.

Consider the following:

In your organization / healthcare system:

  • What is your organization doing to address secondary traumatic stress?
  • Are any of these practices in place at your organization?
  • Does the organization recognize that all staff may be impacted by this work?
  • Does your organization explicitly value and support work-life balance for staff?

In your team:

  • How do you help to address secondary traumatic stress for those you supervise or mentor?
  • Does your team build in ways to acknowledge the impact of particularly challenging cases and debrief together?
  • Are you a champion for colleagues who may be showing signs of stress?

Tools and resources for organizational support to reduce secondary traumatic stress

  • Take a 1 hour online course on secondary traumatic stress 

  • Download a slideset on secondary traumatic stress to share with your team

  • Learn about the Stress-Less Initiative for teams

  • Learn about the NCTSN's Trauma-Informed Organizational Assessment

  • Learn about the Secondary Traumatic Stress Innovations and Solutions Center, a partner in the NCTSN

Interested in working with CPTS to support your organization's efforts to provide trauma-informed care? Complete this request form.

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