Using a Trauma-Informed Approach to Address Burnout in Nursing: What an Organization Can Accomplish

Burnout among nurses is prevalent and has worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. Trauma-informed care (TIC) is an approach that can bring healing to people and systems who have been impacted by trauma and traumatic events. Nurses working in hospitals experience vicarious trauma and secondary traumatic stress as they witness what their individual patients experience; however, nurses themselves experience traumatic events and that has only escalated with the current pandemic. Working from a model of Trauma-Informed Healthcare (TIHC) and SAMSHA foundations of a trauma-informed approach (TIA) we identify opportunities for organizations such as hospitals to integrate TIA towards altering the system to better provide for nursing staff who are suffering from burnout and exhaustion. We offer an exemplar of an organizational-level approach to supporting nursing staff through TIA.