Healing trauma with interprofessional collaboration and trauma‐informed perinatal care: A qualitative case study

Abstract

BackgroundThe interprofessional education collaborative (IPEC) core competencies (CCs) describe standards for effective interprofessional health care practice and education; these standards are updated periodically based on stakeholder feedback. The purpose of this project was to use a qualitative case study approach to describe one multiparous birth trauma survivor's fifth birth experience with an interprofessional birth care team (IBCT) and to juxtapose her experiences and perspectives with the IPEC core competencies (IPEC CCs). This approach enabled us to identify strengths and gaps in the standards for interprofessional health care education and practice specific to perinatal care.MethodsOne in‐depth, open‐ended, semi‐structured interview was conducted to elicit the participant's fifth birth experience. Information from her previous births and the IPEC CCs was used to design the interview guide, and we used independent, deductive, consensus coding to identify themes from verbatim transcripts.ResultsThree themes were identified: (a) Establishing a therapeutic patient‐provider relationship; (b) Prioritizing communication, respect, and knowledge in person‐centered care; and (c) Shared decision‐making as the crux of collaborative care. The participant's narrative elevated person‐centered, trauma‐informed care (TIC) principles as critical to effective interprofessional birth care and as essential threads for the IPEC CCs.ConclusionsOne survivor's positive experience after prior birth trauma illustrates the critical role IPEC CCs may play in collaborative perinatal care provided by IBCTs. In our analysis, we also identify the need to explicitly incorporate TIC principles and person‐centered language in health care competencies that support the standards for perinatal health care education and practice.

Current practices and challenges in application of trauma‐informed care for accidentally injured patients: An exploratory qualitative study

“…In the collaborative care, medical providers such as psychologist, social worker, doctor, nurse could work as a team to share information in order to promote psychological trauma issues management, which might improve the providers' confidence in helping injured patients with the psychological trauma recovery. Meanwhile, the collaborative mode in the trauma‐informed process could provide a more supportive and safer environment to decrease the patient's trauma feeling (Horan et al., 2022). The administrators should guide to build up multidisciplinary collaborative teams to set up information exchange and sharing mechanisms (Leng et al., 2022) so as to implement targeted, coherent TIC for accidentally injured patients.…”

“…Meanwhile, the collaborative mode in the trauma-informed process could provide a more supportive and safer environment to decrease the patient's trauma feeling (Horan et al, 2022). The administrators should guide to build up multidisciplinary collaborative teams to set up information exchange and sharing mechanisms (Leng et al, 2022) so as to implement targeted, coherent TIC for accidentally injured patients.…”

Perinatal Bereavement in Racially, Culturally, and Gender Diverse Families

“…Low health literacy has been identified as a potential modifiable risk factor for poor health outcomes; therefore, nurses and other health care providers must improve communication with patients, use plain language and visual aids to convey health information, and provide health literacy education and support to patients and families (Shahid et al, 2022). Using a trauma-informed lens that prioritizes communication, respect, and knowledge in person-centered care is an important approach for health care providers working with diverse families experiencing perinatal loss (Horan et al 2023). Use non-verbal cues such as body language and the nuances of eye contact (which may not always be appropriate) in ensuring effective communication (Squires, 2018).…”