Intentions and willingness to engage in risky driving behaviour among high school adolescents: evaluating the bstreetsmart road safety programme.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the impact of a road safety programme on adolescents' willingness to engage in risky behaviour as probationary drivers, adjusted for covariates of interest. METHOD: The bstreetsmart is a road safety programme delivered to around 25 000 adolescent students annually in New South Wales. Using a smartphone-based app, student and teacher participation incentives, students were surveyed before and after programme attendance. Mixed-methods linear regression analysed pre/post-modified Behaviour of Young Novice Driver (BYNDS_M) scores. RESULTS: 2360 and 1260 students completed pre-event and post-event surveys, respectively. Post-event BYNDS_M scores were around three points lower than pre-event scores (-2.99, 95% CI -3.418 to -2.466), indicating reduced intention to engage in risky driving behaviours. Covariates associated with higher stated intentions of risky driving were exposure to risky driving as a passenger (1.21, 95% CI 0.622 to 2.011) and identifying as non-binary gender (2.48, 95% CI 1.879 to 4.085), adjusting for other predictors. CONCLUSIONS: Trauma-informed, reality-based injury prevention programmes can be effective in changing short-term stated intentions to engage in risky driving, among a pre-independent driving student population. The adolescent novice driver age group is historically challenging to engage, and injury prevention action must be multipronged to address the many factors influencing their behaviour.

Donor white blood cell survival and cytokine profiles following red blood cell transfusion in Australian major trauma patients.

BACKGROUND: The potential for the co-existence of genetically disparate cells (microchimerism) and associated cytokine profiles following red blood cell (RBC) transfusion in trauma patients has not been well characterized to date. This study investigated the incidence of surviving donor white blood cells (known as transfused-associated microchimerism (TAM)) and cytokine changes following blood transfusion in trauma patients. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Trauma patients with an injury severity score (ISS) >12 who had been transfused between 2012-2016 with at least 5 units of RBC units over a 4 h period were recruited. Trauma patients with ISS > 12 who did not require blood transfusion were recruited as controls. The incidence of TAM was determined using a panel of insertion/deletion (InDel) bi-allelic polymorphisms. Selected pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokine profiles were analyzed using cytometric bead array. RESULTS: The transfused cohort (n = 40) had median ISS of 28 [12-66], received a median of 11 RBC units [4-114] and had median hospital length of stay of 35 days [1-152]. Only 11 (27.5%) patients returned for follow-up blood sampling after discharge. Of these, one patient showed an InDel pattern indicating the presence of TAM. No patients in the control cohort (n = 49) showed TAM. Cytokines IL-10 and IL-6 were found to be elevated in the transfused trauma patients. CONCLUSION: In this cohort, TAM was found to occur in one patient of the 11 who received a blood transfusion. Elevated IL-6 and IL-10 cytokines were detected in those patients who were transfused. However, the incidence of TAM could not be correlated with the elevated cytokine profiles for this cohort.

Redesigning the response to patients with trauma.

In 2008, a multidisciplinary team of nurses, doctors, clerical staff, a social worker and paramedic at Westmead Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, began a project to redesign the composition and practice of the hospital's trauma team. This article describes the process involved and explains why staff collaboration, the involvement of stakeholders and the sponsorship of the hospital executive team were crucial to the success of the project. These principles can be transferred to other hospitals.

Redesigning the response to patients with trauma.

In 2008, a multidisciplinary team of nurses, doctors, clerical staff, a social worker and paramedic at Westmead Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, began a project to redesign the composition and practice of the hospital's trauma team. This article describes the process involved and explains why staff collaboration, the involvement of stakeholders and the sponsorship of the hospital executive team were crucial to the success of the project. These principles can be transferred to other hospitals.