PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION

Although great gains have been made in decreasing highway fatalities, motor vehicle crashes remain the leading cause of death for persons between the ages of one and thirty-four in the United States. Infants and young children are particularly vulnerable because they depend on parents and caregivers to ensure that they are properly restrained. From 1996 to 2000, motor vehicle fatalities of children (birth to five years) decreased nationally by 16 percent, decreased in Region II by 41 percent, and in New York State by 44 percent.

There are many reasons for deaths in vehicular crashes, however studies indicate that children traveling in car seats are at a decreased risk of death and injury in the event of a collision. Sadly, the Suffolk County SAFE KIDS coalition identified a car seat misuse rate of 96 percent.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

The goals of this project are to decrease the rate of child safety seat misuse in Suffolk County and to engage future pediatricians in child passenger safety and occupant restraint education.

Specific objectives include:

• Increasing the number of child passenger safety technicians; and

• Increasing the number of pediatricians who make child passenger safety a priority.

STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES

The Director of the Pediatric Residency Program and Chair of the Pediatric Department at Stony Brook Hospital expressed an interest training pediatric residents to become certified child passenger safety technicians. They approached a Child Passenger Safety (CPS) instructor about including residents in training classes.

After much discussion, the Department of Pediatrics at Stony Brook University Hospital began to require that all pediatric Residents become certified Child Passenger Safety Technicians and would be expected to do the following:

• Offer current CPS information to families;

• Teach parents how to correctly secure a child in a child passenger safety seat;

• Offer educational classes to the community;

• Spread their knowledge to peers; and

• Conduct car seat clinics where they practice.

Initially, Residents were incorporated into classes with students from a variety of backgrounds. However, because they were already accustomed to absorbing large amounts of information in short periods of time, their learning was accelerated. As a result, a new “Doc’s only” class was developed that will be more tailored to their learning needs. In addition, classes will be given half days and spread over a longer period of time (six to seven days), thus allowing physicians to conduct patient care in the afternoons.

RESULTS

To date, 42 residents have been trained. The Residents participated in six car seat checks reaching over 600 families. The Pediatric Department has been so pleased with the results that they will now require pediatric attending physicians to become certified as well.

   SPRING 2002