Youth Sports Related Concussion Education Among High School Students

Youth Sports Related Concussion Education Among High School Students The purpose of this study was to determine if a concussion educational program improves high school students and their parent/and or guardian’s concussion knowledge and attitude regarding sports related concussion (SRC) symptoms and reporting behaviors. In the United States (US) up to 3.8 million SRC among youth ages 10-19 years of age occur annually (Bagley et al., 2012; Echlin et al., 2010; Glang et al., 2015; Manasse-Cohick & Shapley, 2014). Most injuries take place at a school sponsored activity (Bramley, Patrick, Lehman, & Silvis, 2012; Glang et al., 2015; Manasse-Cohick & Shapley, 2014). Sports-related concussion diagnoses rely heavily upon the student athlete reporting their symptoms to coaches and parents (Eagles et al., 2016). Reporting suspected concussion symptoms, and being removed from the activity lessons the risk of secondary post-concussion injury (Hunt, 2015; Manasse-Cohick & Shapley, 2014). Studies show educating coaches, parents, and students on concussion recognition and management decreases a student athlete’s risk of returning to play too early or not reporting symptoms (Hunt, 2015; Manasse-Cohick & Shapley, 2014). However, basic awareness of recognizing and correctly responding to a suspected concussion injury is lacking among student athletes, parents, and coaching staff (Echlin et al., 2010). The SRC educational intervention program used in this DNP project provided a synergistic approach to increasing SRC education knowledge and recognition of signs and symptoms through a partnership of a local rural high school and DNP student. Concussion knowledge and behavior post intervention increased from base line pre-test scores, and stayed consistent or gained at one-month post intervention; however, the gains were not significant. Implications for nurse practitioners include increased opportunity for student and parent SRC education during sports physical or routine office visits (Jamault, 2013). Nurse practitioners can provide a translation of evidence based practice sports related concussion guidelines through partnerships with school athletic staff (Jamault, 2013). Nurse practitioners are poised to facilitate school based concussion education programs and provide guidance creating policy and procedures regarding prevention education, symptom recognition, and post-concussion management for student athletes (Jamault, 2013).