The Steel Jacket: Antecedents of Trauma A Pilot Nurse-Led Study to Examine Trauma Patients Existential Experience and the Impact of Empathic Nursing Care

Abstract

This nurse-led, institutional review board-approved pilot study describes basic nursing research from the phenomenon of interest through institutional review board submission and approval process, study protocol development, study execution, and reporting both qualitative and quantitative finding. This study is underpinned with a novel nursing theory, The Steel Jacket: Antecedents of Trauma, inspired by the work of physicist David Bohm and nursing theorist Martha Rogers. The study involved 2 distinct sets of subject: nurses and trauma patients. Nurses were recruited to participate in a prestudy and poststudy of The Steel Jacket Theory. Trauma patients were interviewed to understand their lived experience of the meaning of trauma 1 year after the event. One hundred acute care nurses in a level 1 trauma center were emailed a survey about their level of empathic care and existential nursing approaches toward trauma patients. The intervention included a short module on The Steel Jacket Theory and an accompanying original 6-minute video. Simple statistics were used to tabulate findings. The second set of subjects were trauma patients who were consented and participated in 30-minute interviews. Spielberg's Phenomenological framework was used to describe themes from trauma patient's lived experiences: feeling lost, engaging in self-blame, internally fighting vulnerability and fear, marshalling inner resources to survive, and knowing that a moment in time changed their life forever. Trauma patients can benefit from Trauma Survivorship clinics and nurses need protected time to appreciate and cultivate the space to listen for what is said, perceive what is not said, and co-create a path of healing.