Highlights
- •Youth athletes are at risk for sudden cardiac arrest.
- •Community or recreational youth sports leagues may lack safety procedures to prevent sudden cardiac death.
- •Nurses can lead quality improvement initiatives to implement emergency action plans to respond to sudden cardiac arrest.
- •Nurses can utilize best-practice recommendations for youth sports safety to guide improvement efforts.
Abstract
Background
Children who participate in youth sports are at risk for sudden cardiac arrest (SCA)
related to undetected cardiac anomalies or abrupt impact to the chest. Nurse-led interventions
may prevent sudden cardiac death by helping leagues implement an emergency action
plan to respond to SCA and improve safety. A youth soccer league in the Southeast
with participants between the ages of 5–19 years, led by volunteer board members and
coaches, did not have reliable access to automated external defibrillators or receive
standardized education on SCA and cardiopulmonary resuscitation with a site-specific
action plan.
Methods
A nurse-led quality improvement pilot project used partnerships to provide league
access to automated external defibrillators, institute preseason SCA and cardiopulmonary
resuscitation training, and establish an emergency action plan for the league's volunteers.
Anonymous pre- and post-training testing was conducted to measure participant knowledge,
confidence, and willingness to respond to SCA. A cross-sectional survey, using a convenience
sample of board members and coaches, evaluated sustainability of the intervention
at midseason.
Intervention
Training targeted board members (Blue Shirts) to serve as leaders on the field during an SCA event and educated coaches on activating
the emergency action plan.
Results
Blue Shirts and coaches showed significant (p < .05) improvement of knowledge, confidence, and willingness to respond to SCA after
receiving the standardized preseason intervention; Blue Shirts' changes were sustained at midseason.
Conclusion
Nurses are ideal for helping youth sports leagues implement a sustainable SCA action
plan based on best-practice recommendations for emergency health and safety.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 04, 2021
Accepted:
October 1,
2020
Received in revised form:
July 20,
2020
Received:
April 27,
2020
Identification
Copyright
© 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
