Current Pediatric Research

This paper outlines an initiative to improve pediatric concussion care within United States Army military treatment facilities throughout Europe. The first step of this initiative was composing a pediatric concussion working group which then created an easy-to-use return to school/play information sheet based on current concussion literature. The second step of this initiative was a performance improvement project focused on the education effort by members of our pediatric concussion working group and training efforts to educate military medical providers, coaches, parents, and teachers regarding sports concussion and return to school/ return to play activities for children who experience concussion. The third step of this initiative was conducting a retrospective case analysis of emergency room admissions on 96 pediatric patients which demonstrated how pediatric concussion evaluation and screening was impacted by this training effort. The fourth step of this initiative was surveying healthcare providers to gauge the usefulness and efficacy of our education/training and our return to school/play information sheet. Our results indicate that pediatric concussion education can be effective and is perceived as being useful in accurate identification of concussion and identifying potential barriers that may impact compliance with clinical practice guidelines for concussion. Education efforts should focus on patient and parent expectations, gender differences, the significance of early identification, continued management through symptom resolution, and the importance of medical clearance for resumption of school/recreation activities.

Author(s): Kendra Jorgensen-Wagers*, Stephanie Maxfield-Panker, George Smolinski

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