Korean nurses’ knowledge, opinions and current practice of trauma-informed pediatric nursing care in South Korea: a descriptive study

Abstract

Purpose This study aimed to investigate the knowledge, opinions, competence, and barriers of nurses providing trauma-informed care (TIC) to children in hospitals. Methods Data were collected from 198 nurses nationwide using the TIC Provider Survey developed by the Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress in July, 2024. Descriptive statistics, t tests, and one-way ANOVA were conducted using the IBM SPSS Statistics software (ver. 23.0, IBM Corp.). Results Of the 13 items assessing knowledge of TIC, seven had a correct response rate of over 90%. However, the correct response rate for these three items were less than 30%. Regarding opinions on the TIC, more than 90% of participants agreed with five of the seven items. In self-rated competence in providing TIC, they were not competent in responding to a child’s (or parent’s) questions about whether the child is going to die or understanding how traumatic stress may present differently according to developmental stages. The major barriers to providing TIC were time constraints, lack of training, and organizational support. Items with relatively low performance rates were ‘teach parents what to say to their child after a difficult/sick/scary experience, and teach child or parents the specific ways to cope with unpleasant experiences’. Conclusion This study suggests that it can contribute to the development of specific guidelines for nurses to effectively apply TIC in pediatric and family nursing practice, emphasizing the need for educational programs to support this implementation.

Keywords

• child care
• family
• knowledge
• nurses
• stress disorders, post-traumatic