O3227: Helping the helpers: A curriculum to address professional exposures to trauma experienced by an interprofessional child abuse pediatrics team

Background: While it is known that professionals may experience burnout and trauma symptoms because of their work in child abuse pediatrics (CAP), less is known about the acceptability and impact of curriculums designed to help providers address repeated exposures to trauma.

Project aims were to:
1- Develop a curriculum on coping with professional exposures to trauma for an interprofessional CAP team.
2- Evaluate curriculum acceptability and impact on coping and team interactions.

Methods: A novel curriculum on addressing professional exposures to trauma was administered to an interprofessional CAP team at one pediatric hospital from 09/2023-06/2024. The curriculum was designed using Kern’s conceptual framework and led by an outside trauma psychologist. Needs assessment to inform curriculum design included literature review and electronic survey of interprofessional team members, which revealed participants wanted to learn coping skills, tools to manage impacts of stress on relationships outside of work, and how to support team members especially trainees.

Instructional content included values, self-awareness, impact of trauma on emotional intelligence, adult development, team functioning, and healing. Instructional strategies included readings, in-person educational sessions and regular check-ins for fellows and faculty (figure 1). Participants were invited to complete an electronic questionnaire pre and post curriculum with open ended questions about trauma, coping and team functioning. Post curriculum, participants were also asked to rate the importance of curriculum components on a Likert scale. The Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL) validated measure of compassion satisfaction and fatigue was administered pre and post survey and scores were calculated for 1- compassion satisfaction, 2-burnout and 3- secondary traumatic stress. Frequencies and proportions were calculated.

Results: There were 19 curriculum participants: 4 fellows, 7 attendings, 8 non-physician team members. Median number of years on the team was 6 (range 0.2, 35), and 21% of participants attended prior trainings on secondary trauma. Response rates for pre and post surveys were 100% and 74% respectively.

Ninety-three percent agreed that the curriculum provided useful information and was worthwhile. Figure 2 details participant ratings of the importance of each curriculum component.

No participants had concerning ProQOL compassion satisfaction, burnout or secondary traumatic stress scores pre or post curriculum. Despite having good ProQOL scores, participants described trauma symptoms including hypervigilance, nightmares, self-doubt, and helplessness on pre and post curriculum surveys. Most participants (86%) noticed positive changes in how they manage stress, including increased self-awareness and enhanced relationships. Positive changes in team functioning were endorsed by 79% of post-curriculum survey respondents.

Conclusion: A curriculum on addressing the impacts of CAP exposures to trauma was acceptable. Sessions for the entire interprofessional team and regular fellow only check-ins were important. While not captured by standardized measures, most respondents noticed positive differences in stress management and team functioning post curriculum.