The effect of trauma-informed care training on nurses' knowledge, attitudes and practices and perceived enablers and...

To evaluate the effects of a trauma-informed care workshop on nurses' knowledge, attitudes and practices, as well as their perceptions of barriers and enablers to trauma-informed care implementation.

Trauma has a widespread impact on survivors. Healthcare providers should deliver trauma-informed care to empower and avoid retraumatization. However, many nurses lack the knowledge and skills to implement trauma-informed care or have negative attitudes toward the practice. Few studies have assessed the effect of trauma-informed care workshops on nurses.

A randomized controlled trial.

Participants included 291 nurses in Saudi Arabia who were randomly assigned to the intervention or control group. The intervention comprised an online workshop based on the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration 4 Rs framework and six principles of trauma-informed care, followed by 12 weeks of reinforcing educational materials. After 3 months of delivering the online workshop session, posttest data were collected from both groups. An intent-to-treat analysis was considered for all participants lost to follow-up (n = 43). Multilevel linear modeling assessed differences in change from pretest to posttest between the intervention and control groups.

The intervention significantly affected all outcomes (all p<.001). Compared with the controls, the intervention group had greater improvements in knowledge (β = 2.84), attitude (β = 4.25), practice (β = 1.33) and enablers (β = 3.05) and larger reductions in perceived barriers (β = -4.41).

The findings highlight the importance of including trauma-informed care principles in nurses' continuing professional training.