Prehospital Impact on Family Members of Road Traffic Accident

Abstract

Background Prehospital care is nonexistent in most rural and semiurban areas. The implementation of golden hour care is still unachieved. The psychosocial problems of family members who accompany the traumatic brain injury (TBI) survivors after road traffic accidents (RTA) are not given attention during prehospital care. Therefore, the current study was aimed to understand the prehospital psychosocial impact on family members. Methodology A cross-sectional study was conducted at the Emergency and Trauma Care Centre at National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru between July 2017 to April 2018. Forty-five (n = 45) referred family members providing care for trauma survivors were purposively recruited in the study. Structured checklists were administered to measure the psychological reactions and psychosocial problems experienced by the family members during prehospital care. Data analysis was analyzed using the R software 3.0.1 version. Results TBI survivor's mean age was found to be 33 years (33.09 ± 13.20), of which males were 23 (51.1%) and females were 22 (48.9%), respectively. The result depicted first aid was provided by unskilled people after an average of 41 minutes (41 ± 30). The results further showed that family members had experienced agitation (100%), shock (82.2%), fatigue and headache (75.6%), depression (66.7%), feeling of hopelessness (55.6%) helplessness, and lack of support from family and financial constraints (48.9%) during prehospital care. Conclusion Psychosocial interventions need to be provided during prehospital care by trained medical and psychiatric social work professionals to address the need of family members during the crisis.

Determining the mothers’ first-aid self-efficacy in-home accidents in Turkey

“…However, when mothers encounter accidents, they often get panic and take their children to the hospital without properly implementing the first-aid requirements [8]. In fact, the very first minutes after the incident are of great importance, so, the first-aid should be applied immediately within the time following the accident [9]. A qualified and skillful the first-aid increases the success of the post-event treatment and reduces the death rates by 20%.…”