Make a difference in the hospital and community.
From motor vehicle collisions and geriatric falls to domestic abuse and community violence, incidents that lead to injury negatively impact individuals, families, and communities. These incidents also have pronounced detrimental outcomes on public health and perceptions of well-being. Understanding the issues that lead to injuries and violence helps us better develop and implement evidence-based programs to decrease their prevalence. (See The data.)
The injury prevention coordinator (IPC) role offers an opportunity to gain that understanding. In addition, IPCs collaborate with local organizations, schools, healthcare providers, government agencies, and community leaders to coordinate collective efforts and leverage critical resources for injury prevention initiatives. They work with community members and organizations to develop emergency preparedness plans and resources for natural disasters, pandemics, and other public health emergencies, including first aid training and disaster response protocols. These professionals also engage community members in participatory approaches to injury prevention, which empowers them to take ownership of their safety and advocate for positive changes in their environments.
Endless opportunities exist for injury prevention both in the hospital and the community. From local efforts to global interventions, IPCs uncover the factors influencing injury and violence risk, manage community engagement, advocate for policy changes, and conduct research to drive meaningful innovation.
The data
Federal, state, and local government reports detail the rapidly increasing rate of injury and violence across the United States. To reduce the burden of injury and violence, and ultimately prevent harm, nurses can amplify awareness and educate at-risk community members.
Injury and violence are now the leading causes of death among people ages 1 to 44 years and the fourth leading cause of death for people of all ages. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), over 89,000 unintentional injury deaths occurred in the 1 to 44 age range in 2021 (up from 44,000 in 2010). The CDC also reports that each year 3 million older adults receive treatment in emergency departments for fall-related injuries, including 300,000 hip fractures.
In my local area, geriatric falls, motor vehicle collisions, and firearm-related incidents remain among the top contributors to injury. Other preventable deaths occur as a result of drowning and suicide. Nurses who familiarize themselves with these data can educate those around them and work collectively to reduce violence, injury, and death.
IPCs in the hospital
Healthcare professionals—particularly nurses—should have the knowledge to identify critical points of contact, such as the IPC, and have a basic understanding of what the role entails. However, most do not. Even with 13 years as a healthcare professional (8 as an emergency department nurse where I treated victims of injury and violence every day), I didn’t know about IPCs when I accepted my current position. Even now, 2 years after I began working in my IPC role, I have yet to meet a nursing colleague who knows my role exists in the hospital.
Across the United States, hospitals seeking to maintain American College of Surgeons (ACS) accreditation undergo a survey every 3 years to verify their trauma level. Level II or III hospitals must have personnel to implement injury prevention initiatives (for example, a trauma program manager or quality improvement staff). To maintain Level I verification, a hospital must have personnel whose explicit responsibility is injury prevention (such as an IPC).
IPCs working in hospitals pull data from the organization’s trauma registry and internal databases to identify top mechanisms of injury (MOIs) for trauma patients. They then implement programs within the hospital and the community to help prevent those injuries from occurring or recurring.
Innovative injury prevention
Spreading awareness and highlighting the importance of injury and violence prevention facilitates community knowledge and integration of injury prevention into public spaces, where many of these injuries occur. Because the top three MOIs for my trauma center in Texas include geriatric falls, motor vehicle collisions, and penetrating injuries (gunshot wounds), I provide community education to address each: Stay Active and Independent for Life (SAIL), Impact Teen Drivers (ITD), and Stop the Bleed (STB).
SAIL, ITD, STB
SAIL aims to improve balance and reduce falls in older adults, ITD uses real-life stories to spread awareness of the detrimental impacts of distracted driving, and STB provides the public with the knowledge to recognize and stop life-threatening bleeding with pressure, wound packing, and tourniquet application. In addition to these programs, my trauma center uses the ACS screening standards for all patients admitted to the hospital. Specifically, we implement the evidence-based Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment method to identify individuals who use alcohol or other substances, which increases their risk for injury.
I’ve implemented these programs in the community at local secondary schools and colleges, municipal recreation centers, assisted living facilities, and health fairs as well as at other outreach opportunities and settings, such as the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and at the 2023 Dallas-Fort Worth Original Gun Show. Ultimately, providing education in these spaces empowers community members with knowledge and awareness about safety initiatives they can implement in their homes.
Other opportunities for injury prevention include joining local, regional, or national committees and partnering with others in the field to spread awareness, develop and implement prevention programs, or advocate for safety and health equity. Disseminating information presents another avenue for prevention. For example, IPCs knowledgeable about the increasing number of children who drown annually or the impact of traumatic brain injuries resulting from not wearing a helmet understand which resources to offer community members who care for children.
Interorganizational efforts
Other injury and violence reduction opportunities include fire prevention instruction, safe sleep education, and distracted driving awareness. Motor vehicle collisions are a leading cause of death among teenagers. In 2023, I worked with interorganizational colleagues to provide distracted driving education to high schoolers at six schools in our urban community. Together, we held STB training in nine high schools with 21 separate sessions in the Dallas area and three at the Dallas-Fort Worth Federal Air Marshal training facility and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration offices.
In addition, I participated in 18 SAIL classes for older adults at various facilities within my community and contacted Project ChildSafe to obtain a shipment of gun locks to distribute within in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. I also secured vendor status at the Dallas-Fort Worth Original Gun Show and distributed 900 gun locks and provided education on safe gun ownership to attendees.
Because this interorganizational network of IPCs knows the statistics of those affected by preventable injuries, we identified at-risk community members and developed educational programming.
Fall prevention
Injury prevention should begin as soon as a patient enters the hospital, and IPCs should provide nursing staff with continuing education on best practices for preventing injuries in high-risk populations. For many healthcare professionals, geriatric falls account for a significant number of hospital admissions. Falls also are the most common cause of traumatic brain injury regardless of age. Research has documented that falling once doubles one’s chances of falling again, so IPCs should target this population with prevention efforts.
In my previous experiences as a bedside nurse, we placed patients who had fallen in non-slip socks, gave them an armband indicating their fall potential, and noted them in the electronic health record (EHR) as a fall risk. But what’s done to prevent the fall from recurring? At my current organization, we implemented a system-wide change in our EHR so that anyone age 60 or older who arrives at the hospital for any reason will receive fall-prevention education at discharge. The EHR adds this education automatically to their chart whether they’re discharged from an inpatient setting or the emergency department.
Nurse training
Other injury prevention efforts within my organization include providing STB training to newly graduated nurses as part of hospital orientation. Providing this education to incoming nurses supplies them with the knowledge to control bleeding and offers them the opportunity to share this education with other staff members, patients, and the public.
Make the connection
We should aim to bridge the gap between IPCs and healthcare professionals in the hospital setting. I encourage IPCs to network and market themselves within their organizations and make their services readily available to patients and colleagues. For healthcare staff, seek out your organization’s IPC, ask about the initiatives in your setting and community, and take advantage of available resources and your IPC to promote safety and healing within your community.
Tamara Wright is a trauma injury prevention coordinator at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas.
American Nurse Journal. 2025; 20(7). Doi: 10.51256/ANJ0725114
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Facts about falls. May 9, 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/falls/data-research/facts-stats/?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/falls/facts.html
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. WISQARS leading causes of death visualization tool. wisqars.cdc.gov/lcd/?o=LCD&y1=2021&y2=2021&ct=10&cc=ALL&g=00&s=0&r=0&ry=0&e=0&ar=lcd1age&at=groups&ag=lcd1age&a1=0&a2=199 Impact Teen Drivers. Our story. impactteendrivers.org/our-story
