| dc.description.abstract | Background: At present, there is a movement in health care towards an approach that utilizes
the components of trauma awareness to enhance care provision (Davis, Constigan, & Schubert,
2017; Felitti, 2017). Trauma awareness can be described as having three main elements:
realizing the prevalence of trauma in society; recognizing the signs and symptoms of trauma in
patients; and responding to the trauma survivor by fully integrating knowledge about trauma
into practices and procedures (Klinic, 2013). Researchers recommend that the best way to
achieve the highest quality of care is for health care providers to become trauma aware (Bartlett
et al., 2015; Harris & Fallot, 2001; Kelzelman & Stravropoulos, 2012; Klinic, 2013; Ko et al.,
2008). Literature on the effects of trauma explains that trauma histories can influence the
adoption of avoidance behaviours which, in turn, can interfere with a patient’s progress to
achieve health goals such as exercise adherence (Clark et al., 2015; Kelzelman &
Stravropoulos, 2012; Klinic, 2013). Given that 76% of Canadian adults report some form of
trauma exposure in their lifetime (Van Ameringen, Mancini, Patterson, & Boyle 2008), an
argument can be made that Registered Kinesiologists, relatively new regulated health
professionals, need some foundational knowledge on trauma to help them identify related
barriers that may explain why a person is avoiding exercise. To date, no studies have explored
the notion of trauma awareness among Registered Kinesiologists in practice. Thus, advancing
trauma awareness research in this context is both timely and warranted (Wayne et al., 2017).
Not only will this information support the advancement of Kinesiology from professional and
best practice standpoints (Ko et al., 2008), the patients themselves stand to gain a great deal in
terms of quality care provision.
Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the concept of trauma awareness
through the professional lived experiences of Registered Kinesiologists working in Ontario by applying a step-wise interview process. Details of each Registered Kinesiologist’s work
experiences were gathered through three separate interviews in order to create a rich
description of their trauma awareness as depicted through their realizing the prevalence of,
recognizing, and responding to trauma in their practice. | en_US |
