Trauma-Informed Nursing Leadership: Definitions, Considerations and Practices in the Context of the 21st Century

Trauma-informed practices have been widely adopted in clinical, educational and research domains of nursing practice, supporting trauma-informed care for patients and contributing to the knowledge base for trauma-informed care practices. However, trauma-informed concepts and frameworks have not been taken up as readily by nursing leadership in the administration and policy domains, presenting an opportunity for the exploration of the ways in which trauma-informed leadership might shape nursing leadership practice. In this paper, the concept of trauma-informed leadership is defined and considered as a possible direction for nursing leadership practice in the context of the 21st century, wherein increasing complexity and rapidly accelerating social divisiveness require leadership practices that centre compassion, well-being and justice. A real-world example from the COVID-19 pandemic response provides an opportunity to consider trauma-informed nursing leadership in practice as an approach to supporting individual, population and system wellness and resilience.