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Home News Medical center named highly trained site for treatment of traumatic brain injury

Medical center named highly trained site for treatment of traumatic brain injury

Published: Thursday, August 26, 2010

The University of Tennessee Medical Center is one of only 23 hospitals in the nation deemed “fully trained” in the Adam Williams Initiative for the treatment of traumatic brain injury. Participation in the initiative involves utilizing cutting-edge evidenced-based protocols created by the Brain Trauma Foundation and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and endorsed by the Adam Williams Initiative.

The Adam Williams Initiative is a philanthropic foundation that provides grants for training and equipment to military and civilian trauma centers across the United States with the goal of helping establish a higher standard of care for traumatic brain injury patients. Traumatic brain injury outcomes have dramatically improved since these protocols were established in 1997 at Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, CA.

“The Adam Williams Initiative helps us consistently apply the best evidenced-based care for severely brain-injured patients,” said Blaine L. Enderson, MD, professor of Surgery and chief, Division of Trauma and Critical Care at UT Medical Center.

To be considered into the Adam Williams Initiative, the applicant hospital must be either a Level I or II Trauma Center. Once accepted, three nurses from the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) go to Mission Viejo to shadow staff at Mission Hospital’s ICU and attend classes for three days. After the team has completed the onsite training, they return to their facility to begin the process of developing guidelines to treat traumatic brain-injured patients in their facility. This involves a team approach with trauma surgeons, critical care intensivists, neurosurgeons and nurses with a goal of preventing secondary brain injury.

“A patient with a traumatic brain injury requires an extraordinarily diverse knowledge base and expertise in order to optimize both neurological and functional outcomes,” said Jeanie Myers, RN, CNRN, clinical specialist in the Surgical Critical Care Unit at UT Medical Center. “Being part of the Adam Williams Initiative allows nurses the opportunity to develop these skills and utilize equipment to monitor these patients more effectively. We have seen our patient’s outcomes improve while following our traumatic brain injury guideline, which is really what nursing is all about – seeing patients get better.”

To be identified as “fully trained” the institution must train enough of the critical care staff to meet the demands of their patient population. At UT Medical Center, more than ¾ of the surgical critical care nursing staff or 68 nurses have been trained. They have attended classes on treatment of traumatic brain injury and have been trained on new equipment.

“The nursing staff is excited about being able to provide cutting-edge evidenced-based care to our patients,” said Jennifer Radtke, BSN, RN, CEN, UT Medical Center Trauma program manager. “They are thankful for the tools that allow them to know precisely what is going on with their patient.”

A patient is placed in the initiative after having been diagnosed with severe traumatic brain injury. The patient is cared for by the surgical critical care intensivist in collaboration with the neurosurgeon and other members of the surgical critical care interdisciplinary team. Since beginning participation in the Adam Williams Initiative one year ago, UT Medical Center has cared for more than three dozen traumatic brain injury patients admitted to the program.

Traumatic brain injury occurs when a sudden trauma causes damage to the brain as a result of the head suddenly and violently hitting an object, being jarred or when an object pierces the skull and enters brain tissue. Traumatic brain injury can occur as a result of falls, sports-related accidents, car crashes, motorcycle and ATV crashes and from penetrating injuries such as gunshot or stab wounds. The critical care team must take early and aggressive action to ensure that secondary brain injury is prevented with careful monitoring and treatment following the guidelines.

 

For more information, visit Emergency and Trauma Services.