Injury Surveillance Model - A Practice Education Clinical Auditing System

Objectives: To find the most common sites of and mechanisms of injury presenting to Physiotherapy in the Irish Defence Force population. To assess patient care with regards to most common treatments used and number of... [ view full abstract ]

Objectives:

1. To find the most common sites of and mechanisms of injury presenting to Physiotherapy in the Irish Defence Force population.

2. To assess patient care with regards to most common treatments used and number of appointments given.

3. To use this data to guide Defence Force Physiotherapy practitioners, medical officers and military personnel in their management and prevention of injury.

4. To give incoming physiotherapy students an accurate description of the range and proportions of conditions they could expect to see during their clinical placement with the Irish Defence Forces. This would allow them to better prepare for their placement.

5. To create a National Standard model in relation to Practice Education Clinical Auditing.

   Methods:

     An anonymised, coded injury surveillance system run through Microsoft Excel which recorded location, nature and mechanism of injury. The treatments used, number of appointments per patient, pain (NPRS), function (PSFS) and status ( (10-NPRS + PSFS) X 10/2))were also input into the system. Status is the composite score of pain and function and recorded as a percentage out of 100, ie. 50%, 75%.

    Each student was tasked with recording their own patients in their personal injury surveillance system. This information was input into each student’s personal Excel surveillance system depending on the patients they had seen. Each patient was given a corresponding number for use in the event of repeat patient to avoid duplicity of results, (Patient 1, Patient 2 etc.) and all systems and devices were passcode locked to ensure anonymity.

     At the time of conclusion of the students’ placement (6 weeks in total), they compiled their data and produced a profile for the experience of the average student on their placement. This was in relation to the relative proportions of location and mechanism of injuries seen, as well as the most commonly used treatments.

     

   Results:

     It was found that, for this particular placement site, the average third year student would see 20.25 individual patients with a total of 39.25 patients over a 6 week placement shared with 3 other students of the same stage. The most common region of injury was Lumbar (23%), followed by knee (15%), Ankle (12%), calf (10%) and shoulder (10%). The most common mechanisms of injury were running, carrying weight, overtraining, mechanical imbalances and overstretching. The treatments most frequently used were deep tissue massage, strength training prescription and flexibility exercise prescription.

    

    

   Conclusion:

     This injury surveillance model can be used to objectively assess the experiences of students on clinical placement. The model can guide a student’s learning needs, ensuring they are getting the most comprehensive clinical experiences.

     References: Nil.

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