In this issue

Issue 7

March 1996

Nurses at IWK study behaviour and perceptions of risk

Beth Bruce, Valerie Eden and Janet Lake, nurses at The Izaak Walton Killam Hospital Grace Health Centre in Halifax, are examining the relationship between rates of injury among preschool-aged children and four factors: parents' risk perceptions, safety behaviour and stress among parents, and children's risk behaviours. The CHIRPP database was used to identify potential participants.

The study, Prediction of Children at Risk for Subsequent Injury, is testing the hypothesis that young children are at increased risk for injury in families in which parents are less likely to perceive risks and to practise safety behaviours, in which parents have a high level of parenting stress, and in which children engage in a high amount of risky behaviour.

For one year, the nurses are tracking two groups, one of families with injured children and one of families without. All of the families had visited the IWK emergency department with a child two to five years old. As part of the study, they filled out a questionnaire about the four factors. Researchers contact them each month to record any injuries their children may have sustained.

The results of the study may help predict which children are most at risk for injury and may provide direction for injury prevention programs and future research.

Janet Lake presented the study design at the American Emergency Room Nurses Annual Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, in September 1995. An abstract was published in the Journal of Emergency Nursing, October 1995, p. 383.

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