Trauma-Informed Nursing Curriculum

What is this?

Trauma-informed healthcare is a model of care that realizes the prevalence of trauma in the lives of patients, families, and healthcare staff; recognizes its impact on health and well-being; and responds by integrating this knowledge into practice and policies to ultimately improve patient care and outcomes, as well as nurse resilience.

Our team developed course materials to help nursing faculty incorporate trauma-informed healthcare practice concepts into all aspects of the undergraduate and graduate nursing curriculum. Incorporating trauma-informed healthcare practices into nursing education may evoke student stress, so we developed faculty resources to support faculty and staff in setting the context for a safe learning environment.

Why is this module needed?

It is important to establish the basics of trauma-informed practice for nursing students prior to interpersonal interaction with patients and families, building these skills into their practice while they are learning how to be a nurse.

This set of materials brings principles of trauma-informed care into the initial teaching of physical assessment skills and techniques and related skills for taking a health history, addressing both pediatric and adult patients.

Why nursing students?

As integral members of the health care team, nurses have the opportunity to establish a healthy therapeutic relationship with the patients and families that they care for. A foundational knowledge of trauma-informed care principles and skills equips nursing students to deliver evidence-based, quality care, enhancing the patient and family experience.

In addition, a better understanding of secondary traumatic stress amongst healthcare staff empowers nurses to enter their career with the skills to support themselves and their peers.

Getting to Know the Resources

Each piece of this module may be useful to incorporate into your teaching. We recommend you explore these resources in the following order:

Resource

What is this Resource?

Trauma-Informed Care 101

(Contact CPTS@chop.edu if you have difficulty downloading this copy of the PowerPoint slides.)

Slideset with Instructor Notes.

Creating a Trauma-Informed Learning Environment

Brief interactive online module. Basic information for nursing faculty who are preparing to present material on trauma-informed care.

Trauma-Informed Nursing Course Syllabus

A syllabus that can be used to support the development of a full course on trauma-informed nursing or that can be used to infuse individual (or multiple) modules into existing courses.

Trauma-Informed Physical Health Assessment

A pediatric and adult version of a trauma-informed physical health assessment with a slide deck and instructor notes to enhance current physical health assessment education.

HealthCare Toolbox Nursing Educational Activities

Developed by the Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress, six free, interactive, online courses that offer nursing CEs are available for students.

Coming soon: the ability to assign to cohorts of students via TICKET for Healthcare Teams.

If you find these materials helpful, please share this information with others!

For questions or issues, please contact CPTS.

Getting to Know the Resources: Why, What, How

Trauma-Informed Care 101

WHY – A strong foundation in understanding the prevalence and impact of trauma on our patient populations is important in the development of nursing students. This resource will provide nurse educators with a trauma-informed care educational slide set to provide nursing students with an understanding of trauma and trauma-informed care, with the goal of developing a shared language as nurse educators infuse additional trauma-informed nursing resources into courses.
WHAT – Access to a PDF version of a Trauma-Informed 101 slide deck with instructor notes. Access to the Powerpoint slide deck is available by contacting CPTS@chop.edu.
HOW – This slide deck, with accompanying instructor notes, can serve as a guide for nurse educators to provide foundational trauma-informed education to their students. We recommend that this education occurs prior to engaging in trauma-informed physical health assessment.

Creating a Trauma-Informed Learning Environment

WHY – Nurse Educators have to meet many demands, including preparing students for their licensing exam and preparing nursing students to be prepared for the clinical environment. In the midst of these demands, it is critical that nurse educators have the knowledge and skills to develop learning environments where students have a sense of felt safety and can optimal have mastery over the content.
WHAT – An online Asynchronous Learning Module (available here through Articulate Rise)
HOW – This is a self-paced module for nurse faculty use prior to engaging with nursing students on concepts related to trauma-informed healthcare practice. We suggest that you view this module prior to implementing the Trauma-Informed Physical Health Assessment materials and/or prior to launching a Trauma-Informed Nursing Course or infusing trauma-informed healthcare practice concepts in your nursing courses.

Trauma-Informed Nursing Course Syllabus Template

WHY – Integrating individual modules on trauma-informed healthcare practices or developing entire courses on trauma-informed nursing is becoming a more common practice.
WHAT – Our team developed a Trauma-Informed Nursing Course Syllabus Template that provides a full course syllabus and individual modules. This syllabus maps content on the 2021 AACN Essentials and provides class readings and resources for each topic.
HOW – This resource can be used to develop a course on trauma-informed nursing or you can utilize one or more of the individual modules as a guide to infusing some trauma-informed healthcare practices into an existing course.

Trauma-Informed Physical Health Assessment

WHY - It is important to establish the basics of trauma-informed practice for nursing students prior to interpersonal interaction with patients and families, building these skills into their practice while they are learning how to be a nurse. This set of materials brings principles of trauma-informed care into the initial teaching of physical assessment skills and techniques and related skills for taking a health history, addressing both pediatric and adult patients.
WHAT – Access to slide sets with accompanying instructor notes for both the Adult and Pediatric Health History versions.
HOW – Decide whether you will focus on an Adult or Pediatric Health History (for some courses it may be both). We suggest that you have your students complete the Trauma-Informed Care 101. You have access to the Trauma-Informed Health History Adult version or Trauma-Informed Health History Pediatric version, along with accompanying slide sets to guide your teaching. Additionally, you have access to Teaching Trauma-Informed Care: A Symposium for Medical Students, a supplemental resource to enhance student learning.

Healthcare Toolbox Nursing Educational Activities

WHY - This set of courses provides additional information and skill-building on trauma-informed care and provider wellbeing.
WHAT - The Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress has developed six online, free, interactive courses relevant for students and practicing nurses alike: "Pediatric Medical Traumatic Stress: An Introduction for Healthcare Providers;" 3 courses that are an in-depth "How-to Guide" for the D-E-F framework, "For Healthcare Professionals: PMTS and Working with the Child Welfare System," and "Secondary Traumatic Stress for Healthcare Professionals."
HOW - Select which courses might be most relevant to your teaching. Students can create accounts and submit certificates of completion. COMING SOON: The ability to assign and track student completion via TICKET for Healthcare Teams.

How were these materials and resources developed?

These course materials are being developed by a group of interdisciplinary health care professionals at leading health systems and universities in the Philadelphia area.

The Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress, a partner in the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, initiated the project as part of its efforts to create resources for trauma-informed healthcare across the US.

Core Development Team

Nicole DiBattista, RN, MSN, CEN; Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Stephen DiDonato, PhD; Thomas Jefferson University College of Nursing
Holly Harner, RN, PhD; University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
Richard James, MLIS; Medical Librarian, Nemours Children’s Health
Nancy Kassam-Adams, PhD; Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia & University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
Jessie Axsom, BSN, RN; University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
National Nursing Advisory Committee of the Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress

This physical assessment / health history module complements and builds upon a resource created for medical students by Binny Chokshi, MD; Kimberly Walsh, MPA, RN; Danielle Dooley, MD, MPhil; Olanrewaju Falusi, MD; Lawrence Deyton, MD, MSPH; Lee Beers, MD: Teaching Trauma-Informed Care: A Symposium for Medical Students.

Additional Resources

Health / Physical Assessment and Procedures:

Vanessa goes to the Doctor: This 8-minute teaching video from the National LGBT Cancer Network highlights the issues transgender people face when attempting to access healthcare, showing how initial interactions with a healthcare provider can inadvertently alienate transgender patients and offering concrete suggestions for change.

Managing Procedural Anxiety in Children: This video, currently available to New England Journal of Medicine subscribers only, provides helpful techniques to minimize anxiety in children during a health assessment or procedure. Check your institution for access.

Managing the Frightened Child: This publication from the Annals of Emergency Medicine provides helpful information as well as videos on caring for a child who may be anxious or frightened.

Teaching:

What is Trauma Informed Pedagogy?: Introduction to creating trauma-informed learning environments using principles of Universal Design for Learning. Provides links to additional resources

Pediatric Medical Traumatic Stress

Patient Education

Screening & Assessment

Intervention

Trauma-Informed Care

COVID-19

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