Trauma-informed care for the pediatric nurse.
Anna Goddard, Erin Janicek, LuAnn Etcher
PMID 34798581WHAT IT FOUND
Pediatric nurses can treat all children as potentially trauma-affected, use trauma screens such as ACE-Q, PEARLS, PSC, or CTS, and respond with sleep, eating, toileting, and behavior guidance.
Key findings
01The review recommends pediatric nurses use universal trauma precautions, assuming patients may have experienced traumatic stress.
02Trauma screens named include ACE-Q, PEARLS, PSC, and CTS, which are starting points rather than diagnoses.
03Nurses can respond to trauma-related sleep, eating, and toileting problems with routines, reassurance, and positive reinforcement.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
This is an integrative review, not a trial, so it does not show that trauma-informed care improves patient outcomes. The review included commentaries, quality improvement work, and grey literature, not only primary patient studies. No statistical synthesis or validity analysis of the included literature was conducted. The authors acknowledge inherent methodologic limits of integrative reviews. The search excluded literature that did not pertain to nurses, so it may not directly guide other professions.
Declared interests
The authors declared no competing interests.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this review as proof that trauma-informed care or any named screen improves pediatric outcomes. It summarizes practice literature and says no screen is supported over another.