Trauma-Informed Nursing Care
Why Universal Trauma-Informed Care?
One in three women worldwide will experience physical and/or sexual assault.
One in five women in the United States report mistreatment during maternity care.
We are failing women during one of the most vulnerable times of one’s life. It is not a stretch to see every patient we care for as this patient underneath – under the bravado, anger, or irritability. See this face the next time you have a “difficult” patient who “refused” a treatment or was “non-compliant” in prenatal care. This is the foundation of Trauma-Informed Nursing Care. It is not necessary to screen for trauma or know the details of one’s experience to wear a trauma-informed lens during every interaction - every woman, every time.
Bring Trauma-Informed Nursing Care to your practice or organization. Make your healthcare home a sanctuary for women to come to where they will feel safe, heard, cared for, and empowered during childbirth.
1. WHO. Devastatingly pervasive: 1 in 3 women globally experience violence. Published 2021. Accessed August 8, 2023. https://www.who.int/news/item/09-03-2021-devastatingly-pervasive-1-in-3-women-globally-experience-violence
2. CDC. One in Five Women Reported Mistreatment While Receiving Maternity Care. CDC. Published August 22, 2023. Accessed September 7, 2023. https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2023/s0822-vs-maternity-mistreatment.html
Trauma-informed care calls for safety, collaboration, compassion, communication, autonomy, and empowerment. Learn to promote safety by redistributing power right from the outset. Show compassion by discussing patient goals and validating their concerns. Learn safe touch concepts that can apply to the whole head-to-toe assessment and demonstrate collaboration and autonomy. These interventions empower the patient by supporting shared decision-making and mitigating implicit bias. They empower nurses by restoring care into nursing care.