NEBRASKA
Nebraska Cares

 (Outstanding Innovative Project)

PROJECT CHARACTERISTICS PROGRAM AREA(S)
  Outstanding collaborative effort   Child Passenger Safety 
       
TYPE OF JURISDICTION    
  State    
       
TARGETED POPULATION(S) JURISDICTION SIZE
  General Population   1,622,858


PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of accidental death and disability for children in the United States. In spite of a Nebraska law which requires children to ride in safety seats, the 1991 Nebraska Office of Highway Safety usage survey indicated that just over half of the state was complying. Correctly used, child safety seats are 70 percent effective in reducing children's injuries from non-crash events such as sudden stops, turns, and opening the door of a moving vehicle. Detailed field investigations conducted nationwide indicate that as many as 88 to 92 percent of child safety seats are misused to some extent. Manufacturers continually develop new child restraint systems, therefore information regarding their use changes often.


GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
The Nebraska Cares Project is divided into three programs: the Hospital Program, the Physician Program and the Public Information Program. The Hospital Program is based on the recommendations contained in the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) policy statement and was reinforced by the two other programs. Project objectives are to:

  • Enlist the cooperation of the Nebraska Chapter of the AAP and the Nebraska Academy of Family Physicians
  • Develop staff and patient safety seat educational materials and encourage hospitals to establish safety seat patient education modules
  • Recommend that all Nebraska hospitals adopt written policies requiring that newborns must be correctly transported in an infant car seat prior to being discharged, and aim for 75% hospital participation


STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES
The Nebraska Chapter of the AAP and the Nebraska Academy of Family Physicians endorsed all patient and staff educational materials and the hospital inservice education curriculum, and both academies participated in an in-office safety seat/safety belt education program. To launch the project, the presidents of each academy sent letters to their memberships announcing participation, explaining goals and urging individual comment.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska served as corporate sponsor of the Nebraska Cares public information campaign as well as participating in the effort, which included radio and TV public service announcements, news releases, billboards, flyers and posters. In addition, Blue Cross arranged a child passenger safety workshop for its field representatives, enabling them to carry Nebraska Cares project information into physician's offices and hospitals throughout the state.

A wide variety of staff and patient child passenger safety educational materials were developed for the project. They continue to be distributed to all hospitals and physicians. The nursing curriculum, "Motor Vehicle Trauma Prevention from Birth Through Early Childhood," was developed and subsequently approved by the Nebraska's Nurses' Association for continuing education credit. Additionally, Nebraska Cares developed the comprehensive "Loan-Sell-Give-A-Seat" program plan for hospitals and worked with them to establish loaner programs.


RESULTS
A Nebraska Cares survey of 706 academy members in the fall of 1991 determined that of 99 physicians responding, 87 percent were distributing the patient education materials, 89 percent were counseling parents of infants, and 78 percent were counseling parents of toddlers on safety seat use.

Of the 85 targeted hospitals, 95 percent are providing patient education on the correct use of safety seats, as compared with 51 percent of the target hospitals before the project. At project completion, 75 of the hospitals with services for newborns had adopted written policies requiring the discharge of newborns in safety seats. Ninety-one percent indicated they had safety seats available for short- or long-term loan or to give away.

 

FUNDING
  Section 402:
Private:
$181,216
$43,008
CONTACT  
  Fred Zwonechek
Nebraska Office of Highway Safety
P.O. Box 94612
Lincoln, NE 68509
(402) 471–2515



NATIONAL HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SAFETY ADMINISTRATION

FALL 1998