12 Tips for Implementing Trauma-Informed Care Within Undergraduate Medical Education

TL;DR

This paper provides 12 practical tips for integrating trauma-informed care into undergraduate medical education, emphasizing a longitudinal approach and validated competencies.

Contribution

The paper introduces the first validated trauma-informed care competencies for undergraduate medical education and shares implementation lessons.

Findings

Trauma-informed care can be successfully integrated longitudinally into undergraduate medical education.

Validated TIC competencies and strategic partnerships with leadership are essential for effective implementation.

A multi-specialty faculty collaboration helped develop practical TIC curriculum strategies.

Abstract

Trauma-informed care (TIC) has received increasing attention in the literature; however, implementation remains challenging and varies by the target learner group. Undergraduate medical education (UME) requires a longitudinal and broad-based approach to prepare students entering all specialties to incorporate TIC principles into daily practice.

The Trauma-Informed Health Care Education and Research Committee (TIHCER) has released the first ever validated set of trauma-informed care competencies for undergraduate medical education, which serves as helpful framework for incorporation of TIC into UME curricula. A multi-specialty group of faculty clinical educators at the University of Michigan Medical School (UMMS) convened to articulate lessons learned from implementation of a longitudinal TIC curricula into the Doctoring clinical skills course.

Educators involved in designing and implementing TIC will find practical tips rooted in both literature and experience for successfully designing and actualizing trauma-informed care curricula in a longitudinal fashion.

TIC can be successfully implemented and integrated longitudinally into UME. Efforts should include implementing the validated UME TIC competencies, strive to move on the continuum of TIC, and strategically partner with medical school leadership and institutional leadership to prioritize TIC efforts.