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Emergency Medical Service Personnel Recognize Pediatric Concussions
Joshua N Speirs1, Matthew I Lyons1, Bert E Johansson1,2
1Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, El Paso, TX, USA.
Insights
Emergency medical service (EMS) providers demonstrate an equal ability to recognize and triage pediatric concussions compared to physicians. This pilot study highlights the competence of EMS personnel in managing these injuries.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric emergency medicine
- Neurology
- Public health
Background:
- Concussions represent a significant cause of pediatric morbidity.
- Emergency medical service (EMS) providers frequently encounter pediatric concussion cases.
- Limited data exists on the diagnostic capabilities of EMS personnel for pediatric concussions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the ability of EMS providers to accurately recognize and triage pediatric concussions.
- To compare the diagnostic performance of EMS providers with that of medical doctors and registered nurses (MD/RNs).
Main Methods:
- A pilot study involving 56 participants: 38 EMS providers and 18 MD/RNs.
- Data collected included participant demographics and clinical experience with pediatric concussions.
- Statistical analysis was performed to compare recognition and triage abilities between groups, adjusted for relevant factors.
Main Results:
- No statistically significant differences were found between EMS providers and MD/RNs in recognizing and triaging pediatric concussions, after adjusting for age, gender, years in practice, and concussion management experience.
- The performance of the physician and registered nurse group was unexpectedly lower than anticipated.
Conclusions:
- EMS providers are as capable as physicians in recognizing and triaging pediatric concussions.
- This finding suggests that EMS personnel are well-equipped to manage pediatric concussion cases.
- Further large-scale studies are recommended to validate these findings and explore the nuances of concussion recognition by EMS providers.
Abstract:
Concussions are a major cause of morbidity in pediatrics. Many concussions occur during activities with emergency medical service (EMS) providers present to determine if a higher level of care is needed. Data are limited on how capable these providers are. We assessed the ability of EMS providers to recognize pediatric concussions. Fifty-six total responses were included, 38 from EMS and 18 from our MD/RN (medical doctor/registered nurse) group. No statistical differences were found between the 2 groups when adjusted for age, gender, number of years in practice, and number of pediatric concussions managed. This first of its kind pilot study was designed to assess EMS personnel's ability to recognize and triage pediatric concussions. Our findings show EMS providers are statistically identical in their ability to recognize and triage concussions to physicians. The performance of our MD participants was lower than expected. Larger studies are needed to further investigate EMS providers' ability to recognize a concussion.
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