Patient-Focused Brain Injury Education Provided at a Veterans Affairs Medical Center Rehabilitation Program

Research Objectives: -Assess the educational training received by patients rehabilitation.
-Strengthen and support the education and health literacy for the patients during their rehabilitation.

Design: Educational assessment with pre and post assessment.

Setting: Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System (VAPAHCS) as part of the Polytrauma Transitional Rehabilitation Program(PTRP) and Intensive Evaluation and Treatment Program(IETP)

Participants: 24 (100% male, of those 76% white, 50% 30-39 y/o) Active Duty Service Members and Veterans treated at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System (VAPAHCS) as part of the Polytrauma Transitional Rehabilitation Program(PTRP) and Intensive Evaluation and Treatment Program(IETP) during 2023.

Interventions: Questionnaires were given to patients pre and post class using online survey. Questionnaires assessed current and new knowledge about brain injury, and perceived benefit of education class.

Main Outcome Measures: Qualtrics survey that was created by authors.

Results: Initial TBI occurred 2-5+ years ago for 66.66% (n=16) of the participants and was experienced more than 5 times 75% (n=18).
Within class self-perceived learning improved to “Strongly Agree” 37.5-45.8%(n=42) amongst all 4 TBI knowledge questions asked.
58.33% (n=14) of participants “Strongly Agreed” that the presentation was informative.
Participant discussions were found to be engaging(agree) 50%(n=12), informative(strongly agree) 50%(n=12) and empowering(agree)41.67%(n=10).

Conclusions: Participants in the PTRP and IETP programs took part of a patient-focused brain injury education class. These patients represent a unique group within inpatient rehabilitation due to single or multiple TBI experiences with unique injury causes, necessitating specialized care.

Active Duty Service Members and Veterans may have experienced their first TBI greater than 3 years ago and with repeated events. This finding indicates a need for more frequent screening, treatment and education opportunities within their time during the military and upon discharge to the community.

This analysis highlights that these participants benefited from learning about TBI amongst their peers and those with similar military service backgrounds.

The analysis demonstrated that these participants gained insight and would benefit from a formal education class on TBI as part of an inpatient population.

Author(s) Disclosures: No conflicts of interest.