Trauma-informed higher education workplaces: A literature review crosswalk analysis

ABSTRACT

Trauma is an ongoing reality of life. Mass shootings, adverse childhood events, and the COVID-19 pandemic have affected every workplace. Within higher education, students, faculty, staff, and administrators have experienced traumatic stress. The purpose of this systematic literature review (SLR) was to compile evidence-based best practices and create a trauma-informed (TI) model explicitly for higher education grounded on the current TI workplace models. The project addresses which models and evidence-based programs of the TI workplace have been used in the past 21 years and how these practices connect to higher education organizations. A crosswalk analysis between standard TI workplace practices aligned with the higher education context constructs a framework for higher education TI workplaces. The project's implications may take practitioners beyond the broad implementation and evaluation procedures required to sustain a TI workplace initiative toward more tangible approaches for higher education leadership to implement a TI culture. As a result of the SLR, higher education professionals may be able to apply the novel higher education TI practices to develop a culture that acknowledges employees' traumatic experiences and adopts evidence-based TI practices to support their wellbeing. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)