An Audit of Minor Sport Injury Attendances to Advanced Nurse Practitioner service at Portiuncula University Hospital, Ballinasloe.
The Emergency Department (ED), Portiuncula University Hospital, provides a 24 hour 7 day week Emergency Service to approximately 26,500 patients annually. The role of the Advanced Nurse Practitioner (ANP) in Minor Injuries supports the Emergency Medicine programmes key priorities of patient streaming and minimisation of delays for patients.
The aim of this audit was to identify the prevalence of minor sports injury with a view to identify opportunities for health promotion/education and enhance the ANP service.
617 patients were treated by the ANP service for the study period Jan 1st to March 31st 2018. 60 patients attended with a documented sports related injury. This pilot audit data included the age, gender, specific sport and patient disposal was carried out and will continue for a further nine months to allow for seasonal analysis.
60 new patients presented following a sports injury. The patients ages ranged from 4 to 43 years, with a gender difference of 22% female and 78% male. The most common sport causing injury was hurling/camogie, at 38%. Of these finger/thumb/hand injuries accounted for 70% presentations. Soccer was the second most frequent sport involved accounting for 32% of presentations with the largest proportion of these being ankle (37%) and knee (16%) injuries. Rugby accounted for 15% presentations with an equal number of lower limb and head injuries. The least common sport resulting in injury/presentation was horse riding at 5%. 68% of the patients were discharged, 10% were seen back at the ED review clinic whilst 18% required an orthopaedic clinic appointment and 3% orthopaedic care.
The low prevalence of sports injuries over this 3 month period is likely multifactorial with harsh weather conditions causing cancellations of many sporting events. This is further supported by the fact that hurling/camogie (out of season) presentations accounted for over twice the number of rugby (in-season) related injuries. Similar to other Irish studies hurling and camogie account for a significant per cent of finger/hand related injuries. It highlighted the need for more in-depth history taking and study to include compliance with sports specific & sporting organisation specific safety standards entrenching appropriate warm-up and equipment. These will inform future patient education and health promotion strategies, which are an important aspects of the ANP role.
