Defining trauma-informed approaches and their purpose in nursing education: A scoping review

A focus on nursing student trauma has increased since the COVID-19 pandemic. Scholars have turned to trauma-informed approaches to understand how nursing students can be better supported in their education and mitigate the effects of past, current, and future trauma exposure.

To examine the current published literature on how trauma-informed approaches to nursing education are described in the literature.

We conducted a scoping review following the Joanna Briggs Institute framework. We used the PRISMA-ScR guidelines for reporting of findings.

We performed searches in June 2024 and then again in June 2025 in Medline via OVID, CINAHL via EBSCO, ERIC, PsycInfo, Education Research Complete, and Scopus. We included literature published in English in any year that focused on nursing students and/or nurse educators, included a definition of a trauma-informed approach (TIA) and involved any education context.

35 sources were included, published between 2020 and 2025. Study types included 11 descriptions of implementing a TIA and 6 unstructured reviews supporting its implementation. 10 sources were primary research. Findings included descriptive categories of definitions of a TIA, sources of nursing students' exposure to trauma (in their education, personal lives, and specifically COVID-19), and the purpose of a TIA (success in education and the creation of a future workforce).

TIA to support student learning and develop the future nursing workforce are increasingly prevalent and recommended in the nursing education literature. Terminology and definitions of TIA varied but often shared commonalities, with some specifically addressing structural inequities. Differences between definitions that highlight structural inequities specifically need to be examined for how they differ from more common definitions. The student perspective on resilience and TIA effectiveness is needed. Conceptualizations of TIA must also address how they might reinforce power structures within educational institutions, thereby avoiding the reproduction of inequities.