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Trauma-Informed Nursing Care

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Trauma-Informed Healthcare Approaches

Abstract

Trauma-informed care (TIC) is still a relatively new concept and not fully understood or implemented in many healthcare settings. Nurses are the healthcare professionals most likely to have the first contact with many patients, and nursing training and process emphasizes a person-centered relationship, enabling nurses to be advocates for a patient’s advancement toward recovery and optimal health. While a robust trauma-informed nursing care literature exists for mental health and pediatric settings, less has been written to guide nursing care in adult medical settings including primary care, emergency department/urgent care, and inpatient medical-surgical settings.

To spread TIC, health systems and nursing leadership should identify knowledge deficits and provide education for the entire nursing team that describes the interplay of neurological, biological, psychological, and social effects of trauma to reduce the likelihood of re-traumatization and aid in the understanding of how a patient’s presentation may reflect an exacerbation of past events.

Nurses are the ideal clinicians to engage a patient in understanding their own illness and health. Application of a nursing TIC approach may improve outcomes and potentially decrease care utilization and costs. Nursing is a critical component of any trauma-informed delivery system, and this chapter will provide nurses with a framework to apply TIC in the adult medical setting.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. US Army Nurse Corps, LTC (Ret), Veterans Affairs (VA) Boston Healthcare System, Boston, MA, USA

    Jay Ellen Barrett RN, BSN, MBA

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  1. Jay Ellen Barrett RN, BSN, MBA
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Section of General Internal Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, Veterans Affairs (VA) Boston Healthcare System, Boston, MA, USA

    Megan R. Gerber

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Barrett, J.E. (2019). Trauma-Informed Nursing Care. In: Gerber, M. (eds) Trauma-Informed Healthcare Approaches. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04342-1_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04342-1_10

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-04341-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-04342-1

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