Abstract
Background: According to the World Health Organization (2024), about 70% of people worldwide will experience trauma at some point in their lives. Dissociative disorders (DDs) can result from experiencing and witnessing trauma, including child maltreatment, abuse, neglect, and more, and although the prevalence of DDs is up to 10% of the general population (American Psychiatric Association, 2022), psychiatric-mental health (PMH) registered nurses lack training and education on how to treat individuals diagnosed with these disorders (Snyder & Keepers, 2023).
Methods: Sixty-two PMH nurse educators completed an anonymous online survey that included quantitative (yes/no and multiple choice-style) and qualitative (free-text) questions about their perceptions of teaching DDs to undergraduate and graduate nursing students. Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six-phase framework was used to conduct an inductive, reflexive thematic analysis of the qualitative data. Descriptive statistics from the quantitative data were included to add context and clarity for participants’ free-text responses.
Results: Three primary themes were created: differing opinions on the value of teaching DDs, lack of resources, and stigma. Participants mistakenly described DDs as rare, too complicated for students to understand, and outside the scope of practice of a generalist RN. Participants also reported common teaching barriers, including lack of time, lack of resources, as well as their own ignorance about and lack of experience with DDs.
Implications for Nursing Practice, Education, & Research: Though roughly 75% of participants reported that they teach DDs to their nursing students, they endorsed concerning misperceptions about the diagnoses. By failing to properly educate future RNs about disorders that affect up to 10% of the population, individuals with DDs are at risk of receiving inadequate and inappropriate nursing care and experiencing poor outcomes. Future research should investigate improvements to nurse educator preparation and training, nursing curricula, textbooks, and other materials that will improve the quality of care and health outcomes of individuals with DDs and other trauma-related disorders.
Notes
This interactive presentation will describe nurse educators' perceptions of dissociative disorders (DDs) and their perceptions of teaching nursing students at the undergraduate and graduate levels about these disorders. Participants will be able to describe common attitudes of nurse educators related to teaching about DDs, common barriers to teaching about these disorders, and the importance of teaching DDs to nursing students to improve patient outcomes in this population.
Sigma Membership
Iota Epsilon
Type
Presentation
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
Other
Research Approach
Mixed/Multi Method Research
Keywords:
Faculty Development, Health Equity or Social Determinants of Health, Curriculum Development, Dissociative Disorders
Recommended Citation
Snyder, Briana Lynn; Curran, Mary Sharon; and Cooney, Caroline, ""With so Much Trauma in the World, it's a No-Brainer": Dissociative Disorders in Nursing Education" (2025). International Nursing Research Congress (INRC). 92.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/inrc/2025/presentations_2025/92
Conference Name
36th International Nursing Research Congress
Conference Host
Sigma Theta Tau International
Conference Location
Seattle, Washington, USA
Conference Year
2025
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.
Review Type
Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
"With so Much Trauma in the World, it's a No-Brainer": Dissociative Disorders in Nursing Education
Seattle, Washington, USA
Background: According to the World Health Organization (2024), about 70% of people worldwide will experience trauma at some point in their lives. Dissociative disorders (DDs) can result from experiencing and witnessing trauma, including child maltreatment, abuse, neglect, and more, and although the prevalence of DDs is up to 10% of the general population (American Psychiatric Association, 2022), psychiatric-mental health (PMH) registered nurses lack training and education on how to treat individuals diagnosed with these disorders (Snyder & Keepers, 2023).
Methods: Sixty-two PMH nurse educators completed an anonymous online survey that included quantitative (yes/no and multiple choice-style) and qualitative (free-text) questions about their perceptions of teaching DDs to undergraduate and graduate nursing students. Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six-phase framework was used to conduct an inductive, reflexive thematic analysis of the qualitative data. Descriptive statistics from the quantitative data were included to add context and clarity for participants’ free-text responses.
Results: Three primary themes were created: differing opinions on the value of teaching DDs, lack of resources, and stigma. Participants mistakenly described DDs as rare, too complicated for students to understand, and outside the scope of practice of a generalist RN. Participants also reported common teaching barriers, including lack of time, lack of resources, as well as their own ignorance about and lack of experience with DDs.
Implications for Nursing Practice, Education, & Research: Though roughly 75% of participants reported that they teach DDs to their nursing students, they endorsed concerning misperceptions about the diagnoses. By failing to properly educate future RNs about disorders that affect up to 10% of the population, individuals with DDs are at risk of receiving inadequate and inappropriate nursing care and experiencing poor outcomes. Future research should investigate improvements to nurse educator preparation and training, nursing curricula, textbooks, and other materials that will improve the quality of care and health outcomes of individuals with DDs and other trauma-related disorders.
Description
References: American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed., text revision). Author
Boyer, S. M., Caplan, J. E., & Edwards, L. K. (2022). Trauma-related dissociation and the dissociative disorders: Neglected symptoms with severe public health consequences. Delaware Journal of Public Health, 8(2), 78–84. https://doi.org/10.32481/djph.2022.05.010
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International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation. (2020). https://www.isst-d.org
Kumar, S. A., Brand, B. L., & Courtois, C. A. (2019). The need for trauma training: Clinicians’ reactions to training on complex trauma. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. 14(8), 1387–1394. https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0000515
Snyder, B. L. (2021). Recognizing and treating dissociative disorders: The nurse’s role in supporting patients and their families. American Nurse Journal, 16(9).
Snyder, B. L., & Keepers, N. (2023). The lived experience of psychiatric-mental health nurses working with dissociative disorder inpatients: A phenomenological inquiry. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing. 42, 68-72.
World Health Organization. (2024). Post-traumatic stress disorder. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/post-traumatic-stress-disorder#:~:text=Around%2070%25%20of%20people%20globally,to%20develop%20PTSD%20(2).