We obtained parental consent and child assent for
participation.
Procedure
Nurses from the six middle and high schools received
three hours of training in LPC by the developer (M. Wong)
and Principal Investigator (M. Ramirez) in year one. Participants
were provided basic information on trauma and its
psychological impacts on children. The three required
steps of Listen, Protect, and Connect were each described
in detail. Manuals, worksheets, and pocket cards summarizing
these key steps were provided; nurses participated in
role playing to increase familiarization with the steps. In
year two, a two hour refresher course was provided to review
LPC steps and materials with a focus on individual
traumas such as interpersonal violence and injury.
After obtaining assent and consent, baseline questionnaires
were distributed to the students by the University
of Iowa research team online or in-person. To confirm
exposure to trauma, students were asked to report the
types of traumas experienced, witnessed, or learned about
through the Life Events Checklist (LEC), a scale with adequate
reliability and validity. Respondents reported their
traumatic experiences on a 5-point scale (1 = happened to
me, 2 = witnessed it, 3 = learned about it, 4 = not sure, and
5 = does not apply) (Gray et al. 2004). All students had
personally experienced, witnessed or learned about a traumatic
event therefore meeting PTSD Criterion A.
Within one week of baseline survey completion, an
LPC session was scheduled with the school nurse. After
completion of the LPC session, both the nurse and student
completed LPC session evaluation forms. Followup
questionnaires were completed by the student at 2-,
4- and 8-weeks following the initial LPC session.
Intervention
Listen Protect Connect (LPC) is composed of three basic
steps designed to specifically target PTSD symptomatic
reactions (Kataoka et al. 2012; Wong 2008).
Listen step 1
Interventionists use reflective listening skills and noninvasive
questions to elicit responses about a student’s
specific traumatic experiences. For example, the interventionist
asks the students “How, What, or Tell me
more…” questions to begin an open dialogue of the student’s
concerns.
Protect step 2
The interventionist conducts a brief screener of nonspecific
distress using the six-item K6 screener (Furukawa
et al. 2003). The interventionist is taught to identify cognitive,
physiological, and psychological reactions to trauma,
and engages in open discussion with the student about