Research In Action

Trauma-Informed care training has been a core focus area of the Center for Violence Prevention (CVP) since its founding in 2013. Pediatric providers play a crucial role in responding to traumatic stress symptoms and resisting traumatization. CVP provides evidence-based to promote an understanding of traumatic stress and pre-existing trauma into routine care in order to help patients and families cope with illness or injury.

We have trained over 5,000 CHOP employees and over 5,500 community professionals. During this time, interest in and acceptability of trauma-informed care has grown exponentially, as have our partnerships within the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. This includes our most recent and exciting collaboration with the Office of Employee Wellbeing (OEW): CHOPWell Learning’s Trauma-Informed Practice Promoter series. This brings together CVP’s introductory trainings with trainings from OEW staff to reach a broad audience of CHOP employees, both patient-facing and non-patient facing.

A Successful Pilot

The series’ three-month pilot in the fall of 2025 was very successful, with over 200 attendees across 13 sessions. Many participants attended multiple trainings, or even the entire series. Session evaluations were positive, with participants recommending their colleagues attend the session and identifying ways they would improve their practice as a result of attending. One participant wrote, “I love the goal of normalizing the discussion of trauma in the workplace. …for staff to understand trauma, vicarious trauma, how widespread these are, how they impact your daily lives, and how to cope.”

As a result, CVP and OEW have scheduled sessions for the Trauma-Informed Practice Promoter Series through June 2026 to make this widely available throughout the enterprise.

What Participants Learn

In this series, participants: 1) learn skills to use a trauma-informed approach with patients, families, and colleagues; 2) recognize and respond to trauma and vicarious trauma experienced by themselves and others in the workplace; and 3) learn how to build resilience and recovery for themselves and their teams​. Additional goals include:

• Enhancing the ability to identify and understand the effects of trauma and vicarious trauma in oneself and others
• Gaining more tools to manage stress, reduce burnout, and build emotional resilience
• Improving communication and trust with patients, families and co-workers
• Increasing confidence in applying trauma-informed practices in everyday work
• Fostering a sense of community and shared purpose in creating a healthier workplace.

We are excited to continue this important work, both within CHOP and beyond. CHOP employees can sign up for one or all of the trainings via the CHOP Learning Management System by searching “Trauma-informed Practice Promoter.” For external partners looking for trauma-informed care training from CVP, please contact axtmayerc@chop.edu.