Article Text

Download PDFPDF
Use of head injury instruction cards in accident centres.
  1. A B Ward,
  2. A M Boughey,
  3. T S Aung,
  4. K Barrett
  1. Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Haywood Hospital, Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent.

    Abstract

    This study reports on the value of head injury instruction cards as purveyors of information to patients. Patients over 10 years old attending the North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary Accident and Emergency Department with a mild head injury were invited to attend a special brain injury follow-up clinic, where they were asked to complete a questionnaire. Patients failing to attend this clinic were contacted and asked to complete the questionnaire. This revealed that they were no less severely affected by the injury as the attenders. They were asked why they had not attended and a significant number of patients had no recall of being given a head injury instruction card on which the information of the follow-up clinic was given. Memory loss was the most likely cause of this and is more common than is widely appreciated in patients attending accident and emergency departments.

    Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.