The Journal of School Nursing
2021, Vol. 37(3) 145
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/10598405211004709
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Since the beginning of the pandemic, many in the school community and in the larger community have suffered innumerous losses and traumas. Parents, students, teachers, staff, and administrators all have experienced the last year differently. For some, it may be relatively easy to get back to a regular routine and resume previous roles. Others, and probably most, will enter the next stage of their lives forever changed. The traumatic effects from the pandemic are not going to disappear once everyone is vaccinated. Depending on the individual and their circumstances, the difficulty coping, thinking, and emotional control can be long-lasting (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration [SAMHSA], 2014). It will not just be the students who return to school with mental health needs but the staff, the administrators, and the parents. Students may be silent or disruptive. Parents may lash out. Teachers may be shorttempered or exhausted. As much as everyone would like to put the past behind us, talking too soon of moving on diminishes and denigrates the pain and suffering that has occurred. For renewal to occur, we need to embrace the pain and experiences of the last year and integrate them in order to heal.
Before the start of the pandemic, many school nurses were introduced to trauma-informed care (TIC). The goal of TIC is to understand the connection between trauma and behavioral health and to guide systems to become traumainformed (SAMHSA, 2014). Typically, workshops offered to school nurses and educators focus on TIC as an approach to individual troubled children. However, when a shared traumatic event occurs, such as the pandemic, the community as a whole experiences trauma (SAMHSA, 2014). TIC fosters not asking a person “what is wrong with you?” but “what has happened to you?” TIC is a transformation of how we treat each other in the neighborhood, in the community, and in the school. It is not just an intervention aimed at those who are “at risk” of previous trauma, but how we treat every member of the school community, on our teams, in the classroom, and in the faculty lounge.
There are not going to be enough mental health professionals to address all the individuals, both children and adults, who will be suffering from mental distress and grief in the years ahead. The shortage of mental health practitioners makes TIC, a population-based intervention, all the more important to prevent retraumatizing students, family members, and faculty.
As school nurses, during the pandemic, we have earned unprecedented recognition for the worth that we bring the school community. School nurses have risen to this crisis with compassion, courage, and leadership. School nurses adapted and innovated to deliver school health and public health services (Combe, 2020; Flaherty, 2020; Park et al., 2021). More than ever before, local leaders recognized school nurses’ experience and knowledge and trusted us to guide them and communicate with staff and parents. Partnerships were cemented through collaborations to fight the virus (Bullard et al., 2021). School nurses have an unparalleled opportunity during this time as respected health professionals to leverage those partnerships and lead the way to renewal. Together with other school health professionals and community health leaders, school nurses can champion TIC training and the adoption of a trauma-informed approach toward healing and recovery in the coming school year.
Martha Dewey Bergren, DNS, RN, NCSN, PHNA-BC, FNASN, FASHA, FAANEditor, The Journal of School Nursing
Bullard, J. S., McAlister, B. S., & Chilton, J.M. (2021). COVID-19: Planning and postpandemic partnerships. NASN School Nurse, 36(2), 80–84. https://doi.org/10.1177/1942602X20962213
Combe, L. G. (2020). School nurses: Living the framework during COVID-19. NASN School Nurse, 35(4), 183–187. https://doi.org/10.1177/1942602X20929533
Flaherty, E. A. (2020). School nursing and public health: The case for school nurse investigators and contact tracing monitors of COVID-19 patients in Massachusetts. NASN School Nurse, 35(6), 327–331. https://doi.org/10.1177/1942602X20950670
Park, K., Cartmill, R., Johnson-Gordon, B., Landes, M., Malik, K., Sinnott, J., Wallace, K., & Wallin, R. (2021). Preparing for a school-located COVID-19 vaccination clinic. NASN School Nurse, 36(3): 156–163. https://doi.org/10.1177/1942602X21991643
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration. (2014). SAMHSA’s concept of trauma and guidance for a trauma informed approach (HHS publication no. SMA 14-4884). https://ncsacw.samhsa.gov/userfiles/files/SAMHSA_Trauma.pdf