Date of Award

2009

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Nursing

First Advisor

Frenn, Marilyn

Second Advisor

O'Brien, Maureen

Third Advisor

Brown, Ardene

Abstract

Shaken baby syndrome (SBS) involves physiological and neuropsychological sequelae secondary to parental or caregiver handling of an infant or young child (Goldberg & Goldberg, 2002). According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (APA) (2001), non-accidental head injuries are the leading cause of traumatic death and cause of child abuse fatalities. The prognosis is extremely poor with a death rate of 26-36% and up to 78% of the survivors suffer long-term disability (Barlow & Minns, 2000). According to Prevent Violence Against Children Act, 2005 Wisconsin Act 165; SECTION 7.121.02(1)(L)6 educational SBS requirements are mandated, effective school year 2007-2008. Two instrument development studies were completed to examine reliability and validity of the USBS-13 instrument. Tenth grade students (N=260) were randomly assigned by classroom to intervention and control groups. The intervention included a 50 minute interactive class with a SBS SimulatorTM developed by Realityworks® (2009). The intervention group had significantly higher knowledge on post-test compared with the control group (p=.000). The intervention was found to be equally effective with males, which is of importance, since they are more often the perpetrator in SBS (Lazoritz, Baldwin & Kinney, 1997; National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome, 2009).

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