Vidant Research and Education Project

Purpose: Improve Rural Pediatric Trauma Readiness

We partnered with the Eddie Smith Foundation to create and fund a project at Vidant Medical Center. The study is titled “Saving Children in Rural America: The Impact of a Mobile, Simulation-based Educational Outreach Initiative on Pediatric Trauma Care and Outcomes in a Rural Trauma System.”

Vidant was awarded $250,000 over two years. The researchers at Vidant are collaborating with East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine to build a mobile Sim unit to increase pediatric trauma education and readiness for regional healthcare providers in eastern North Carolina. In addition to the pediatric-trauma specific knowledge, practicing how they will respond to an injured child gives caregivers confidence and increases skill.

Pediatric trauma readiness in rural areas is crucial to saving injured kids across the U.S. If injured, one in five (20 percent) of our children are not close enough to a trauma ready hospital to be transported by air or ground within the critical “golden hour” of time after an injury.

Our main goal is to improve care for all injured children. One way to do this is by increasing the regional medical provider’s access to pediatric trauma education. If children can reach the best care within the first Golden Hour of injury, these paramedics, nurses and doctors can help save more lives.

With the help of more donors like Greenville, NC-native Eddie Smith, we hope to replicate this project in other rural areas in America.