From Taboo to Accepted: Increasing Gun Safety Counseling in Pediatric Primary Care

Abstract

Firearm injuries are a leading cause of death among the pediatric population. Previous studies have shown that gun safety at home, meaning that firearms are locked up, unloaded, with ammunition locked up in a separate location, can help to reduce pediatric firearm injuries. Effective interventions, such as pediatric primary care health care providers (HCPs) doing firearm injury prevention (FIP) counseling while giving anticipatory guidance during a well child check, can have a strong impact on decreasing the number of firearm injuries. The evidence-based practice project used an existing evidence-based bundle approach to educate and train HCPs from primary care clinics within a large pediatric healthcare organization to consistently offer FIP counseling during as many well child checks (WCC) as possible. A pre-intervention survey distributed to HCPs was used for baseline measurements, with a bundled educational intervention and post-intervention survey 4 weeks later to assess for anticipated increased confidence, self-efficacy, and frequency in providing FIP counseling. Based on the findings of the project, recommendations were made for ongoing FIP training for HCPs.