The Development of Trauma and Resilience Competencies for Nursing Education

BACKGROUND: Trauma and its consequences have been identified as a high-priority public health risk. A growing body of research reveals the devastating long-term consequences from common and widespread adverse events across the life span. In addition, recent research links medical procedures and medical illnesses with posttraumatic stress disorder. Nurses too are at risk and suffer vicarious trauma. Nurses must be able to recognize and assess for early trauma symptoms and assist in enhancing resilience in order to prevent and care for those with trauma. However, there is a lack of trauma-informed and trauma-specific training in nursing education. Given the ubiquity of traumatic events, the pervasive physical and emotional sequelae of trauma, and the existence of evidence-based treatment for trauma; there is a critical need to develop core competencies for nursing education and practice. AIM: The purpose of this study was to develop and validate Trauma and Resilience Competencies for Nursing Education. METHOD: An expert panel of 16 nurses met in 2018 to develop Trauma and Resilience Competencies for undergraduate and graduate nursing programs, and for psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner education. Following the Expert Panel's work and approval from the institutional review board, a modified e-Delphi survey was sent to experts in trauma and resilience to validate this work. RESULTS: The competencies were validated and edited to 88 competencies through two rounds of a Delphi survey. CONCLUSIONS: Implications for education, practice, and research are discussed. The Trauma and Resilience Competencies for Nursing Education will be disseminated widely through publications and are available online.