Over the past year, MOMS has been working with Children’s Hospital of Orange County to educate families in our program on window falls prevention. The effort was rolled out through our home visitation program and incorporated into the mother-baby home visit when the baby reached four months of age. The project involved assessing clients’ baseline knowledge of window safety, providing educational information to 152 new mothers, as well as providing families with window safety devices, as needed.
In their evaluation, project leaders found that most moms are aware of window fall risk, but additional resources are needed to address knowledge gaps and remove barriers, and attention must be paid to a false sense of security of window screens to prevent falls.
CHOC project leaders were subsequently invited to present their findings at the Western Pediatric Trauma Conference held in July. Says Makenzie Ferguson, BSN, RN, CPEN: “We were really excited we were able to share an actual intervention and demonstrate the benefits of community partnerships. Next steps of the research project include analysis of the focus groups (which is currently underway) and then writing up the manuscript for the project once we finish the final surveys. We hope all of these efforts will help us get more funding to expand window fall prevention or even some of the other safety issues facing kids in Orange County!”
Congratulations to the members of CHOC Project Team: Laura Goodman, MD, MPH, FAAP; Jennifer Barrows, PhD, RN; Makenzie Ferguson, BSN, RN, CPEN; Sarah Flores, DNP, RN, PHN, NE-C; John Schomberg, PhD, MPH.
