College of Nursing and Health Sciences DNP Defense - Jaime Cathers

Friday, April 17, 2026 at 2:00pm to 3:00pm

College of Nursing and Health Sciences DNP  Defense - Jaime Cathers
 
Title: Improving Emergency Department Nursing Knowledge and Confidence in the Care and Management of Patients with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in the Community Setting
 
Friday April 17th 2pm
ZOOM: Please contact dhoffman@umassd.edu for link.
 
Committee:
Christine  Bell
Kristin GillBonanca  
Erin Rebelo
 
Abstract:
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is diagnosed in over 1 million patients in the US annually, ranging from mild to severe classifications. This places high burden on emergency departments (ED). Patients with mild TBI (mTBI) findings are being observed at community institutions under observation to avoid costly care that interfacility transfers create.  Patients diagnosed with mTBI, who present within the Beth Israel Lahey Health (BILH) system and who meet pre-established criteria for monitoring, are placed on a mTBI pathway necessitating a six-hour observation period.  Anecdotal conversations with nursing staff revealed ED nurses have not been formally trained in a routine neurological assessment that is part of the requirement for this mTBI pathway observation timeline. This DNP project focused assessing the knowledge and confidence of ED nurses at a community hospital within the BILH system.  This project utilized a pre-test, post-test design with an educational intervention (interactive PowerPoint presentation).  Recruitment and participation began in February 2026 for a total of 4 weeks.  Sample size (34 participants) was not met, therefore a Wilcoxen signed rank test on the paired samples was performed.  In addition, descriptive statistics of the pretest participants was analyzed. The results showed an increase in most knowledge categories. The confidence scale showed a Cronbach alpha score of 0.67.  Although the Cronbach alpha showed questionable reliability, when combined with the increase in knowledge shown, the intervention seemed to show positive results.  These results can help to document the need future education on the mTBI pathway in the not only the BID Plymouth ED, but in all of the EDs participating in the program.
 
Keywords: mild traumatic brain injury, mild traumatic brain injury pathway, emergency nurses, nursing education, neurological assessment

ZOOM
Deanna Hoffman
dhoffman@umassd.edu