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Medical student education for injury prevention: closing the gap
  1. Amy Zosel1,
  2. Sara Kohlbeck2,
  3. Christopher S Davis3,
  4. Linda Meurer1,
  5. Stephen Hargarten1,2
  1. 1 Department of Emergency Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
  2. 2 Comprehensive Injury Center, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
  3. 3 Surgery, Trauma & Acute Care, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
  1. Correspondence to Sara Kohlbeck, Comprehensive Injury Center, Medical College of Wisconsin, Wauwatosa, WI 53226, USA; skohlbeck{at}mcw.edu

Abstract

Introduction Injury is a major public health issue in the USA. In 2017, unintentional injury was the leading cause of death for ages 1 through 44. Unfortunately, there is evidence that the sciences of injury prevention and control may not fully and widely integrated into medical school curriculum. This paper describes a novel injury prevention and control summer programme that was implemented in 2002 and is ongoing.

Methods The main component of the Series includes at least seven injury-related lectures and discussions designed to provoke students’ interest and understanding of injury as a biopsychosocial disease. These lectures are organised in a seminar fashion and are 2–4 hours in duration. Kirkpatrick’s four-part model guides evaluation specific to our four programme objectives. Trainee satisfaction with the programme, knowledge and outcome (specific to career goals) is evaluated using several mixed-methods tools.

Results A total of 318 students have participated in the Series. Evaluation findings show an increase in knowledge of injury-related concepts as well as an increase in interest in pursuing injury-related research topics in the future.

Implications The Series is a novel and innovative programme that provides training in injury and injury prevention and control-related topics to medical students, as well as undergraduate, graduate and pharmacy students. We hope that by increasing students’ knowledge and understanding of injury prevention and control we are contributing to a physician workforce that understands the importance of a public health approach to injury prevention, that implements public health principles in practice and that advocates for policies and practices that positively impact injury prevention and control to help make our communities healthier and safer.

  • education
  • haddon matrix
  • programme evaluation
  • Haddon matrix

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Footnotes

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting or dissemination plans of this research.

  • Patient consent for publication Not required.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.

  • Data availability statement Data are available on reasonable request. Data, including deidentified participant data, are available on reasonable request to the corresponding author.