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Date of Award
2018
Publisher
North Dakota State University
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Awarded
Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
Program
Nursing
Department
School of Nursing
College
Health Professions
Faculty Advisor
Gross, Dean
Description
Concussions are a form of mild traumatic brain injury, yet the potential short-term and long-term adverse effects are anything but mild. Concussions, especially if left undiagnosed or untreated, can adversely affect a student’s scholastic achievements, relationships, emotions, and long-term health outcomes. Despite the recent surge in concussion awareness, literature substantiates a gap in the knowledge and adherence to published concussion guidelines amongst primary care providers. Rural communities, with a lack of access to specialty providers, rely on primary care providers to ensure youth concussions are appropriately evaluated and managed to reduce both the short-term and long-term negative health outcomes associated with concussions. This practice improvement project (PIP) focused on increasing primary care providers’ knowledge and promoting evidence-based concussion management practices in two rural North Dakota communities. Through implementation of the PIP, rural primary care providers were educated on the latest evidence-based concussion management guidelines, given resources for clinical practice, and provided an opportunity to evaluate and treat a mock-concussion patient. Project implementation was comprised of a concussion educational session, which included concussion education and the introduction of a concussion toolkit, and a return skill demonstration, where providers applied their acquired concussion evaluation and management strategies on a mock-concussion patient. To assess the participants’ perceived self-confidence and likelihood of using evidence-based practices when evaluating and managing patients with concussions, a self-confidence evaluation survey was administered. The providers were also evaluated on their ability to evaluate and treat a concussion patient during the return skill demonstration. The results of the project indicated an overall increase in participant knowledge, self-confidence, and likelihood of following concussion management guidelines in their next encounter with a patient suspected of suffering from a concussion. The educational session, concussion toolkit, and return skill demonstration were effective interventions in promoting the use of concussion management guidelines by primary care providers in the rural clinic setting.
Recommended Citation
Senger, Jean J., "A Concussion Toolkit Educational Session: Promoting Evidence-Based Management of Youth Concussion in a Rural Primary Care Setting" (2018). Nursing. 114.
https://digitalcommons.ndsu.edu/nursing/114
Rights
NDSU Policy 190.6.2
Rights Link
https://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/policy/190.pdf
Author ORCID Identifier
0000-0001-6660-6732
Handle Identifier
https://hdl.handle.net/10365/27957