An Educational Intervention to Increase Provider Knowledge in the Delivery of Trauma-Informed Care

Background and Significance: Trauma is recognized as a public health crisis. Trauma is a pervasive, detrimental, and financially burdensome problem. Trauma has been defined as “an event, series of events, or set of circumstances that is experienced by an individual as physically or emotionally harmful or life threatening and that has lasting adverse effects on the individual’s functioning and mental, physical, social, emotional, or spiritual well-being (SAMHSA, 2014)”. The negative effects of trauma on a patient’s health can be long lasting. After an initial experience with trauma, patients may become highly susceptible to retraumatization especially when seeking healthcare. To mitigate the adverse effects of trauma, healthcare providers need to recognize the concept of Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) as an essential tool in caring for patients. The literature does identify a gap in the knowledge regarding the implementation of TIC frameworks within the workforce. Specific barriers perceived by the healthcare provider surrounding the implementation of TIC programs are the provider’s lack of knowledge, lack of education, production pressure, and ineffective systems or protocols. When examining the perspective of the healthcare provider in delivering TIC, the concepts of Compassion Fatigue (CF) and Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS) should be considered as a consequence of provider exposure. Along with the psychosocial implications associated with CF and STS, the financial burdens related to job retention can be catastrophic to a healthcare system.

Purpose and Goals:The purpose of this scholarly project is to improve provider knowledge as it relates to TIC in order to increase providerconfidence and decrease compassion fatigue in delivery of TIC. The specific aims of the study are to; (1) identify providers' knowledge gaps regarding TIC; (2) educate providerson TIC and improve their knowledge base; (3)increase provider’s confidence in the delivery of TIC; and (4) decrease provider compassion fatigue related to TIC.

Methodology:A convenience sample of approximately 150 healthcare providers in one of the following roles; obstetric physician, certified nurse midwife, anesthesiologist, certified registered nurse anesthetist, nurse, surgical technologist or patient care assistant, working on the Labor and Delivery Unit at a large urban academic hospital are being recruited to participate in a quality improvement educational session pertaining to TIC. Provider knowledge of TIC will be measured through an investigator designed pre and post survey. The Professional Quality of Life Survey will be used to assess provider compassion fatigue and burnout. The surveys will be administered as a pre and post web-based questionnaire to measure baseline and post intervention changes in provider knowledge and compassion fatigue as it relates to providing TIC.

Results (in progress): Descriptive and comparative statistics will be utilized to analyze data.

Implications for Future: Improving health outcomes for trauma survivors starts with education of the healthcare professionals. Some of the distrust survivors have for healthcare providers come from providers’ lack of understanding for the kinds of problems abuse survivors’ experience when seeking healthcare. Inadequate knowledge regarding TIC can be a barrier to both patient care as well as provider wellness. Improving the providers TIC knowledge base by establishing specialty specific TIC education will improve outcomes for patients who have experienced trauma as well as provider confidence and satisfaction when delivering TIC.