Addressing the wicked problem of childhood trauma through a nursing and cooperative extension system collaboration

The purpose of this clinical concept report is to describe a public health project in rural Indiana that addressed the complex social issue or “wicked problem” of childhood trauma. The project was implemented through a unique partnership between nursing faculty and Cooperative Extension Educators, community‐based workers who are associated with fulfilling the mission of Land Grant Universities. The core focus of the project entailed a nurse and a Cooperative Extension Educator co‐teaching trauma‐informed parenting classes to rural dwelling, kinship caregivers. Kinship caregivers are often grandparents who assume the parenting role after the child has been removed from the birth parents’ care. The trauma‐informed curriculum was developed by experts in child trauma and is available through the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. The unique partnership provided insight into the different missions of the two organizations, different values and workflow metrics, and different schedules, which at times proved to be barriers to implementation. This discussion focuses on deconstructing the goals and objectives of the project and retrospectively, describing recommendations so that public health nurses may partner with Extension Educators in their communities for optimal project success.