KU School of Medicine embraces teaching trauma-informed approaches to patient care

Most people experience trauma at some point in their lives. A large international study in 2015 found that more than 70% of respondents had experienced a traumatic event at least once. This knowledge, paired with open conversations about trauma and its impact on those who experience it, has raised the profile of trauma-informed health care.  

“Trauma-informed care represents a holistic and contemporary approach to patient care that’s relevant to a wide range of clinical and academic disciplines,” said Albert Poje, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Kansas School of Medicine. 

Characterized by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration as an approach that “realizes the widespread impact of trauma,” trauma-informed care trains physicians to recognize signs of trauma in patients from all walks of life and integrate that knowledge into their practice to avoid re-traumatization.  

KU School of Medicine has begun to integrate a more trauma-informed care approach to training. And a big part of that effort has been initiated by first-year medical students, aided by faculty advisors.

The two-year road to this achievement began in the JayDoc Free Clinic, which provides clinical training for students as well as health care for underserved populations in the Greater Kansas City area. Anna Trofimoff, then a first-year medical student, volunteered in the clinic and soon became introduced to the concept of trauma-informed care. 

“It’s such a small change that can make a huge difference in how patient relationships can be,” Trofimoff said. “That was really eye-opening for me and something I wanted to share with other students.” Through informal surveys of students also volunteering in the clinic, Trofimoff was able to gauge student interest in trauma-informed care. According to Trofimoff, more than 60% of students in attendance expressed interest in further training, and a student interest group formed. 

Among the students who joined the interest group was Cole Bird. Also then a first-year medical student, Bird saw the interest group as “a foot in the door” for students seeking more trauma-informed care training.

Trofimoff, Bird and other members of the student interest group sought out faculty advisors to support their mission through mentorship. This led them to Poje, who immediately saw the timeliness of the students’ project.  

“It was clear how knowledgeable, dedicated and passionate these students were about this project and seeing it through,” Poje said.  

The faculty advising team — composed of Poje, Erin Bider, M.D., and Kelly Bisel, D.O., both assistant professors in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, as well as Joseph Fontes, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology — mentored the student interest group as they developed their proposed updates to the curriculum. With faculty guidance, the students combed through the previously approved course materials and sought ways to incorporate trauma-informed language into existing lessons on patient care.

After years of collaborative work — including a Kansas Journal of Medicine article published in 2024 — the student interest group and their faculty advisors brought their proposed changes and newly drafted learning objectives to the KU Office of Medical Education, which approved them earlier this year. The learning objectives include understanding the principles of trauma-informed care and how practicing this kind of care leads to better patient communication, recognizing the signs of trauma and how it may influence the patient’s values and care preference, understanding the relationship between social determinants of health and trauma, understanding how a personal history of trauma can impact the patient’s ultimate care goals and approach to care, and integrating community resources and assistance from other professionals to comprehensively address the full needs of the patient.

The student-developed content will now be put into place, an endeavor Poje hopes to continue overseeing. 

“It’s a great project,” Poje said. “We have a great community of learners and scholars at KU who have already expressed their interest in supporting trauma-informed care content in their lessons.” 

The work also had the support of leadership. “Educational initiatives such as these make trauma-informed care accessible not just for students and trainees, but for their future patients,” said Akinlolu Ojo, M.D., Ph.D., executive dean of KU School of Medicine.

Completing this phase of the project is an achievement that Bird and Trofimoff, now third-year medical students, are proud of. They hope, even as they move forward in their studies, that the work continues with a new generation of students. 

“We've taken one step, but we're in a marathon,” Bird said. “We have to keep stepping forward.”