Clinical Practice Guidelines

Care of the Patient with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

AANN and ARN Clinical Practice Guideline Series

Because nurses are frequently the professionals who see the full impact of TBI and have the skills that can alter the course of a patient’s recovery, AANN and ARN have partnered to develop the Care of the Patient with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Clinical Practice Guideline.  It is important for nurses to have a valuable resource to help them achieve the best possible outcomes and this guideline helps translate the latest research into an easy-to-use reference. This guideline provides recommendations based on current evidence that will help registered nurses, advanced practice nurses, and institutions provide safe and effective care to injured patients with a mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI). The goal of this guideline is to offer evidence-based recommendations on nursing activities that have the potential to maximize outcomes for persons following MTBI. The evidence presented here may help nurses make appropriate choices when caring for patients with MTBI.

Care of the Patient with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (pdf)

There is no cost to view and download this clinical practice guideline. 2.5 nursing contact hours are available upon successful completion of the post-test and the evaluation. An additional fee applies for these contact hours for non-members.

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Price:
ARN members: Free
Non-members: $40

Continuing education

Purpose
The primary goals of ARN continuing nursing education are to increase awareness of new trends in rehabilitation health care and to support the continued growth of the specialty of rehabilitation nursing and individual nurses.

Objectives
At the completion of this activity, the learner will be able to:

1. Describe the scope of the problem of mTBI in the U.S. and common mechanisms of injury and prevention strategies

2. Discuss the commonly used diagnostic tests for assessment of mTBI and nursing responsibilities associated with each

3. Develop an age-appropriate evidence-based nursing care plan for the assessment and care of the patient with mTBI

4. Identify three common problems experienced by a patient with mTBI and evidence-based interventions for prevention or treatment

5. Identify two resources for patients with mTBI.

Intended Audience
This independent study offering is appropriate for all rehabilitation nurses.

Continuing Nursing Education Credit
This activity provides 2.5 nursing contact hours upon successful completion of the post-test and the evaluation.

The American Association of Neuroscience Nurses (AANN) is accredited as a provider of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. This activity is co-provided by the Association of Rehabilitation Nurses (ARN).

Disclosure
A staff member, volunteer or family member who has an affiliation with a commercial company must declare that relationship in advance of involvement with an education activity that could be used as a forum to promote the interest of that company and its products.

None of the authors or planners has anything to disclose related to this activity.

Commercial Support
This program was supported by an educational grant from the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center.

Expiration Dates
Please note this activity is approved for continuing nursing education for a period of two years, expiring June 30, 2013. Once contact hours are earned, they may be used for certification and/or licensure regardless of the expiration date.

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Instructions for earning contact hours

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Click on the link above and read the clinical practice guidelines(CPG). If you do not have Acrobat Reader, but wish to view the CPG, download Acrobat Reader for free by clicking on the image below.

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1. Click on the “Purchase CE Test” below.
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3. Once you are logged-in, a new window will open and allow you to purchase the selected posttest via credit card.  If you wish to purchase more than one posttest, click on the link to return to CE articles and select the additional posttest(s) that you would like to purchase. Please note: if you wish to purchase multiple posttests, you must purchase them all at one time as the site will only allow one purchase, per credit card, per day. Once all your purchases have been selected, you may complete your credit card purchase.
4. Once you have purchased the CE posttests, you will receive an e-mail with instructions on how to access the posttest. Alternatively, you may click on the "View Purchased CE" link. (If returning to this page at a later time, you will be prompted to enter the Web ID and password you used at the time of purchase.)

Please be aware that you may only earn contact hours once per posttest. All sales of CE posttests are final and we are unable to issue refunds for duplicate purchases.