Presenter Profile
Emily Dicksa, MaT, BSPH, CPST
Randall Children's Hospital
edicksa@lhs.org
Emily Dicksa began her work with children and families in 2010 in early childhood development with a focus on health and wellness. In 2016, she received a Bachelor's of Science Degree from Oregon State University in Public Health, with a minor in research and writing. Emily then directed an elementary school-based program for low-income families and children which focused on nutrition, academics, and safe care, before going on to receive her Master's Degree in Teaching from OSU in 2019. During her work in elementary schools, Emily became acutely aware of the many barriers low-resourced families face in keeping their kids safe and healthy. Her passion for Public Health brought her to a new position in 2023 with Randall Children’s Hospital in Portland, Oregon as a Child Injury Prevention Health Educator and Child Passenger Safety Technician. In her current role, Emily focuses on in-patient trauma rounding to provide injury prevention education to families, in-patient and out-patient child passenger safety education, and outreach classes and events to provide injury prevention education in the community.
Presentations
Transition from Safety Center Based Education to Bedside Trauma Rounding for Injury Prevention Education
Amber Kroeker, MPH, CPST
Emily Dicksa, MaT, BSPH, CPST
Injury is the leading cause of death for children. Children who experience one traumatic injury are at increased risk to experience another. Education and environmental modification is a critical component to injury prevention interventions. Historically, our hospital used our Safety Center as a site for injury prevention education at time of hospital admission for trauma. However, our Safety Center was located a five + minute walk from the Children’s Hospital and had very limited hours. The Safety Center housed one injury prevention health educator limiting availability to our trauma patients if the health educator was already engaged with another family. This new program sought to ease barriers to education post traumatic injury.
Our team worked to transition tailored injury prevention education from a Safety Center setting to a bedside setting. Injury Prevention Health Educators screen daily in the hospital Electronic Health Records (EHR) for any patient admitted with an unintentional injury including submersion injuries and ingestion injuries (poisonings, magnets). Once patients are identified, age-based injury prevention packets were assembled and delivered to family’s bedside. Safety product relevant to the injury is also offered to family. For example, if a child is admitted with a bicycle injury we offer a new helmet. A window fall injury may be offered window stops or guards. Presence of firearms in the home may result in distribution of gun locks. Education and product may extend beyond the child admitted if there are other children in the home.
We lack historical data for the number of trauma patients that came to the Safety Center for education. Anecdotally, we estimate that number to be around 4 families per month. Bedside trauma rounding was piloted in late 2018. Trauma Rounding numbers were: 2018: 22 Trauma Rounds 2019: 99 Trauma Rounds 2020: 131 Trauma Rounds 2021: 242 Trauma Rounds 2022: 439 Trauma Rounds 2023: 334 Trauma Rounds
Removing barriers to education in the form of bringing education to bedside resulted in significant increase in injury prevention education.
1. How to identify and remove access to resources for patients
2. How to craft a sensitive harm reduction intervention at bedside
3. How to transition from a resource intensive program (safety center) to a less resource intensive yet more beneficial program