Screening for Toxic Stress Response and Buffering Factors: A Case-Based, Trauma-Informed Approach to Health Equity

INTRODUCTION: Exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can lead to a toxic stress response with impacts on health that affect health equity. As part of our Health Equity, Social Justice, and Anti-racism curriculum, our aim was to introduce second-year medical students to a case-based method using a template-based screening and application of toxic stress, buffering factors, and resiliency-fostering tools to address health disparities and inequities with a trauma-informed care approach. METHODS: We developed an asynchronous e-learning module that demonstrated the impact of ACEs by introducing students to screening for toxic stress response and buffering factors on health, their role as health equity determinants, and the use of brief in-clinic resilience-fostering tools in patient care. This was followed by a synchronous, facilitated, small-group, virtual discussion of a clinical case. Pre- and postworkshop surveys assessed changes in knowledge, skills, and attitudes. A 3-month follow-up survey assessed students’ behavioral changes. RESULTS: Sixty-four students completed the learning module. Paired t-test analysis showed a statistically significant increase in students’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes regarding the Educational Objectives, with a survey response rate of 98%. Three months after the workshop, a third of students were applying these concepts, with a survey response rate of 87%. DISCUSSION: Implementing this case-based curriculum in trauma-informed patient care helped increase opportunities for equitable health in patient encounters by providing students with the skills to screen for toxic stress, buffering, and brief in-clinic resiliency-fostering tools. Such skills will become even more impactful as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.