Madison Melton - Department of Emergency Medicine
Trauma-informed care (TIC) is a structure that aims to prevent traumatization in the healthcare setting and encourages resilience for both patients and staff. It is centered around safety, trustworthiness, transparency, peer support, and empowerment, as well as racial and gender issues. TIC interventions include staff education and collaboration with different health professionals and community organizations. Implementing these ideas is important because “trauma exposure is a highly prevalent experience for patients and clinicians in emergency medicine.”
The definition of trauma can include a wide range of experiences from car accidents to abuse to gun violence and even discrimination. Patients frequently arrive at the Emergency Department (ED) with a history of trauma, and for some, “the experience of the ED may be re-traumatizing or trigger past experiences.” The ED can also present sources of trauma for staff with high rates of workplace violence, post-traumatic stress disorder, and secondary trauma.
This article found that in all 10 studies on TIC interventions in the Emergency Department, there was a positive impact on either patients or staff. Patients reported increased quality of care and increased follow-up rates, while “staff reported greater clinical knowledge and comfort when providing care for historically vulnerable patient populations.”
While this is great, there is still room for continued growth. The TIC interventions studied in this article only focused on specific patient populations, such as victims of human trafficking, sexual assault, and community violence. While this approach increases awareness in these specific populations, “it does not address the needs of patients who do not present with ‘red flags’ or … trauma-related complaints.” Staff in the ED cannot always predict which patients have experienced trauma, and therefore, future TIC interventions should be seen as a universal precaution for all patients. Additionally, education should emphasize that TIC can help avoid trauma for staff.
References:
Brown, T., Ashworth, H., Bass, M., Rittenberg, E., Levy-Carrick, N., Grossman, S., Lewis-O'Connor, A., & Stoklosa, H. (2022). Trauma-informed Care Interventions in Emergency Medicine: A Systematic Review. The Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, 23(3), 334–344. https://doi.org/10.5811/westjem.2022.1.53674
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