INSIGHT: Injury Prevention Courses

Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center supports injury prevention coursework at the University of Washington.

Interprofessional Studies on Injury Prevention and Control – Educational Modules for University of Washington Faculty and Students

This short curriculum seeks to close gaps in the existing injury control content at UW and supplement existing classes or work in public health and the health sciences.

Modules can be imported together or individually, depending on the needs of your course. Students can also individually access these lectures through the direct Canvas link. Each module is developed to reflect regional and local population health needs and provide an introduction to injury control science. While each module has specific topics, underlying themes including risk assessment, examination of affected populations, effective methods to change behavior or the environment, and evaluation of interventions are present in all modules.

The content is designed for both undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Washington, and each module includes lectures from leaders in injury control ideal for supplemental use in related courses.

Funding for these modules was provided by the Josiah Macy Junior Foundation.

Module Topics

A UW NetID is required to access the modules.

Principles of Injury Control

In this module, the basic concepts of injury and injury control will be introduced by Dr. Brian Johnston from the School of Medicine. This includes methods for gathering and ways to assess risk and design interventions to reduce injury. The success of the Seattle bike helmet campaign will be discussed by HIPRC core member Dr. Fred Rivara as an example of a successful injury prevention intervention that changed behavior and reduced injury in Seattle and the U.S.

Violence Prevention

Firearm related suicide and homicide are among the leading causes of violence-related deaths. Dr. Ali Rowhani-Rahbar (School of Public Health), a leader in development of injury research methods and an editor for the Journal of Injury Prevention, will discuss the impact of gun violence on various parts of the population. He will also explain several important discoveries and elaborate on an example of a promising intervention to reduce firearm related injury and death.

Traumatic Brain Injury

In the last few years the cost of traumatic brain injuries (TBI), even minor ones, are only starting to be understood. Many that sustain them live with some sort of lifelong disability, and TBI disproportionately effects pediatric and geriatric populations. Dr. Monica Vavilala from the School of Medicine will discuss pediatric traumatic brain injury and the work that is being done to improve care for patients with TBI. Dr. Hilaire Thompson from the School of Nursing will discuss the increasing population of people aged 65 and higher, how unintentional injury and TBI significantly affect them, and strategies available to prevent brain injury.

Changing Health Behaviors

While injury control includes a variety of topics from traumatic brain injury to gun violence to road traffic injury, many of the principles used to design interventions and reduce injury can be applied to any injury control topic. Unfortunately, telling people that a behavior is bad rarely changes the behavior of a group. Interventions designed to change people’s behaviors must address more than just the factual statement that something is risky. Dr. Beth Ebel from the School of Medicine will focus on road traffic injuries as an example of how to use various injury control strategies to change people’s behaviors to reduce injury.

Care of Injured Patients

While one of the primary goals of injury control is prevention, injury control also includes acute care and rehabilitation. While it is ideal to prevent injury, it is also imperative that once injured the patient receives proper care to treat the injury and rehabilitation back to a functional life while reducing the risk of re-injury. Dr. Saman Arbabi from the School of Medicine is a practicing surgeon who focuses his research on critical care following injury. Dr. Arbabi will discuss prehospital care, trauma systems in Washington state, and ways to improve outcomes. Dr. Megan Moore from the School of Social Work will discuss the importance of the transition between acute care systems and rehabilitation systems and how inequity in these transitions affects outcomes.

Global Injury

While much of the data collected about injuries is from the United States, injury is an international burden and road traffic injuries are one of the increasing causes of injury death. Dr. Charles Mock from the School of Public Health will discuss the injury burden in the developing world and will specifically discuss work done to improve road safety and reduce violence.
The modules are designed in Canvas to support flexible integration into the classroom. Students can be individually enrolled or faculty can import any of the modules into their own classes. Must have a UW NetID to view or use this content.

Contact hiprc@uw.edu for more information, to enroll students or to import a module into your Canvas classroom.