Home / Academics / Find a Program / Trauma-Informed Care Micro Credential / Trauma-Informed Care Micro Credential Course Requirements | Ursuline - Liberal Arts College in OH
This course will provide foundational knowledge about trauma, including definitions and prevalence of trauma, trauma symptoms and clinical presentation, and the functional impact of trauma on survivors across the lifespan, with special attention to the ways that developmental stage can impact functioning and symptomology. The impact of systems of oppression, racism, and discrimination will also be explored through a trauma lens. Students will learn about factors that contribute to resilience and enhanced well-being for survivors, including the importance of helping professionals cultivating authentic, strength-based relationships with survivors. Lastly, this course will introduce the core principles of the trauma-informed care (TIC) approach, and explore interdisciplinary case examples of TIC principles in action, including across medical, educational, and social service settings.
This course will use child and youth case studies to illustrate the neurodevelopmental impact of trauma. Using the case-based book, The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog by Dr. Bruce Perry, students will explore examples of the functional challenges and clinical presentation of trauma-exposed youth across a variety of settings, including medical, educational, child welfare, and other social service settings. The course will examine complex traumatic reactions and their neurobiological roots, including the sensitized stress response system, dissociation, and hyperarousal. Students will use principles of trauma-informed care to develop creative, neurobiologically-informed strategies for working with cases presented in the book, giving special attention to their own professional settings and background (nursing, education, social work, etc.).
The focus of this course will be understanding the ways that helping professionals can be impacted through their work with trauma survivors, and how they can proactively prevent and address the effects of indirect trauma. Students will learn the definitions and prevalence of secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue, and burnout, risk factors for these conditions, and signs and symptoms. Research on organizational factors that increase risk for indirect trauma, as well as organizational protective factors that promote staff well-being, will be explored. Using principles of trauma-informed care, students will develop a plan for individual self-care and organization-level policies and procedures that aim to reduce the impact of indirect trauma and cultivate an organizational culture of trauma-responsive care and compassion.
