Safe States Alliance Annual Conference

Learning Collaboratives Contributions to Child Safety Systems and Workforce Development
Over 40,000 infants, children, and adolescents die each year in the U.S., of which a third are attributable to preventable injuries and violence. Continuous quality improvement has revolutionized patient care and medical outcomes, and funders have identified learning collaboratives as a promising approach for improving population-based health. However, there is scant literature on the effectiveness of these collaboratives on child safety work at the state level and in community settings.

In addition, applying quality improvement methods to statewide programs and practices creates unique challenges and considerations, such as access to real-time data, testing small changes in workplans, managing for improvement, spreading improvements in highly complex systems and geographically large settings, and measuring results. Further, public health practitioners often have limited experience with adapting quality improvement practices to population-based health programs.

This session will present the Framework for Improvement and Innovation in Child Safety that is used by the Children’s Safety Network Child Safety Learning Collaborative (CSLC). Presenters will discuss the CSLC aim and methodology and how an equity lens is embedded in the Framework. Based on surveys and participation records that assessed improvement in child safety systems and workforce development, presenters will share findings from an 18-month CSLC cohort that ran from November 2018 through April 2020 with 26 teams from 12 states.

Findings will demonstrate the contributions of a population-focused learning collaborative to child safety, encouraging participants to consider the potential of learning collaboratives for preventing injury and violence through partnership, scientific, and equity approaches.

CPS Tech Network: Creating a Community of Practice
Fifty-six percent of newly certified child passenger safety (CPS) technicians in Texas are not recertifying after their first two years. To improve retention, engagement and competency among technicians within our trauma service area, we launched the ‘CPS Tech Network’. We set out to create a community of practice as a mechanism for sharing ideas and strategies, coordinating services, standardizing processes, and mentoring new techs.

Launched in 2017, we have seen increased participation and engagement among area technicians. The Tech Network meets monthly and we offer CEU credits to participants. This initiative was kicked off in May 2017 with a CPS Tech Appreciation Breakfast in order for technicians to have fun and meet each other. We host this annual appreciation event in May for Proud to be a CPST Month. It has been a successful way to engage local technicians. CEU topics covered include Lock Off's and Pretensioners, EMS Transport for Children, Inserts and Padding, as well as car seat specific offerings such as Safety 1st Grow & Go and Baby Trend Hybrid.

Through the Tech Network, we have seen a reduction in last minute sign-off requests, increased engagement with check-up events and tech trainings, increased collaboration among technicians from other agencies, and increased knowledge and skill among area certified technicians. Even with COVID-19, we were able to maintain Tech Network activities and grow participation from across the state.