Presenter Profile
Anna Paige Wilson, BS
UAB Heersink School of Medicine
apwilson@uab.edu
Anna Paige is a third-year medical student at UAB Heersink School of Medicine. She graduated from Auburn University with a degree in Biomedical Sciences. She has an interest in injury prevention and pediatrics.
Presentations
Injury Prevention in the Emergency Department
Alicia Webb, M.D
Michele Nichols, M.D
Jennifer McCain, M.D.
Elizabeth Rocker, MSW, LICSW, PIP
Kathy Monroe, MD, MSQI
Anna Paige Wilson, B.S.
Safe storage practices have been shown to decrease incidence of medication ingestion and firearm related injuries in pediatric patients. This abstract describes successful approaches using different personnel in a busy pediatric emergency department setting to improve safe storage among parents.
Various educators (public health student, medical student, full time social service providers) were used in the emergency department to assess feasibility of ED as site for intervention and education, sustainability of various educators and impact of education and equipment on parental behaviors.
The initial stage of this project used a public health student as educator and resulted in 98% enrollment with 363 families receiving education and 843 total children impacted and increased reported correct storage for meds (9% to 85%) and firearms (45% to 67%). The second stage used a medical student as educator and resulted in 93% enrollment with 106 families receiving education and 199 children impacted. Both students were time limited when they returned to classwork. The study was refined to utilize medical social workers who are employed within the hospital with follow-up calls by a medical student. This has resulted in 78 families educated (271 children impacted) to date and began in July 2022. Follow up phone calls for those educated by social services (68% follow up rate) resulted in 24% of families utilizing the firearm lock and 72% using the medication box.
The emergency department is an effective location to provide families with education about safe storage of medication and firearms regardless of educator utilized. The project was effective when using students as educators but found this to be unsustainable due to scheduling conflicts and time restraints. The implementation of full-time hospital employees as educators provided a more sustainable model.
1. Understand the importance of safe storage practices in prevention of ingestion and firearm-related injuries.
2. Describe the materials and education provided to families in this study.
3. Illustrate differences in outcomes when utilizing various educators in the emergency department.