Hello,
I'm Katie. I work in a Bay Area trauma center in the emergency department. I've had the privilege of working within my department for 4 years. Over the past 4 months I've been doing an immense amount of research into ways we can develop a culture that puts forth a trauma informed practice. Through many hours of research, note taking, interviewing and more, Ive gained much insight into the minds of staff, patients and myself. What motivated me to start this was my lived experience with aces and the work environments I've been in that have allowed me to bring forth such life experience into patient care with an authentic empathetic approach. Also, gaining personal insight into ways of healing and finding the internal resources to work through potential vicarious trauma etc. With that being said, I am truly saddened to see the lack of support for staff in areas of emotional and pyschological support and patient care approaches that reach these areas as well. I am seeking any input from the aces community on ways I can sell the trauma informed model to upper management. I am putting together a powerpoint for my supervisors on this topic in hopes I can slowly get minds open to adopting this way of organizational culture. I am looking forward to the feedback from you all. Thank you for your time.
-Katie Stratton
Emergency Department Technician