Journal of trauma nursing : the official journal of the Society of Trauma Nurses
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As a result of the entire process awareness was heightened and the staff is now more sensitive to the need for warming patients in the trauma resuscitation room. A formal protocol for temperature monitoring and warming in the resuscitation room was developed and implemented. Our lack of documentation and embarrassment at our site verification lead us to be even more vigilant of those patients who arrive hypothermic, and institute methods of warming sooner rather than later. We continue to monitor temperature documentation and when there is lack of compliance, those individuals are counseled with expected improvement within the next monitoring period.
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In the United States motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death in children. Although laws and public awareness campaigns have increased the use of passive restraints, many children continue to be unrestrained or improperly restrained. Age-appropriate child restraint systems are a vital means to prevent injury and death. ⋯ This article will provide a comprehensive overview of pediatric seat belt injuries. Content will explore the mechanisms responsible for producing the typical patterns of injury, recognition of these potential injuries during the trauma assessment, diagnostic evaluation and management of children with suspected or actual seat belt injuries. Prevention strategies will be discussed that will enable trauma nurses to effectively advocate the use of booster seats for the young school-aged child.
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Trauma systems rely on accurate Injury Severity Scoring (ISS) to describe trauma patient populations. Twenty-seven (27) Trauma Nurse Coordinators and Data Managers across the state of New South Wales, Australia trauma network were instructed in the uses and techniques of the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) from the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine. ⋯ Four (4) months after the course a coding exercise was conducted to assess inter-rater reliability. The results show that inter-rater reliability is with accepted international standards.
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Cease Fire Tampa Bay is a multifaceted, broad-based community effort working to increase awareness of firearm injuries and provide an opportunity for the people of the southwest-central Florida region to eliminate unwanted firearms. Three approaches to develop this program were implemented; a six-county gun buy-back program, firearm safety education for school-aged children and community education programs. The program has been successful in removing 6,981 unwanted guns from the streets, and has reached thousands of children and families in the region. This article describes the development, implementation and evaluation of the program.