Abstract
Background
Several professional medical societies advocate for firearm safety counseling with
patients. Little is known about Emergency Physicians' practices and perceptions of
firearm safety counseling.
Objective
To assess Emergency Physicians' beliefs regarding firearm control and their confidence
in counseling patients on firearm safety.
Methods
A national random sample (n = 500) of the members of the American College of Emergency
Physicians was sent a valid and reliable questionnaire on firearm safety counseling.
Results
Of the 278 (56.8%) responding physicians, those who were non-white and those who were
not members of the National Rifle Association (NRA) perceived firearm violence to
be more of a problem than white physicians and those who were members of the NRA.
The majority did not believe that patients would view them as a good source of information
on firearm safety (63.3%) or that patients would accept them providing anticipatory
firearm safety guidance (56.5%). The majority of the Emergency Department physicians
did not believe firearm safety counseling would impact firearm-related homicides (75.2%)
or suicides (70%).
Conclusions
The vast majority of Emergency Physicians had never been formally trained regarding
firearm safety counseling, did not believe patients would see them as credible sources,
and did not believe that anticipatory guidance on firearm safety would have any impact.
These data may help inform Emergency Medicine residency programs on the training needs
of residents regarding anticipatory guidance on firearm safety.
Keywords
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Journal of Emergency MedicineAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
National Center for Injury Prevention & Control, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. Web-based Injury Statistics Query & Reporting System (WISQARS) nonfatal injury reports. Available at: http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/nfirates2001.html. Accessed January 3, 2011.
- Private-party gun sales, regulation, and public safety.N Engl J Med. 2010; 363: 508-511
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Crime in the United States: expanded homicide Table 8(2010). Available at: http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/offenses/expanded_information/data/shrtable_08.html. Accessed January 3, 2011.
- Medical costs and productivity losses due to interpersonal and self-directed violence in the United States.Am J Prev Med. 2007; 32: 474-482
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Health Statistics. National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: 2007 emergency department summary, Table 13. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr026.pdf. Accessed January 3, 2011.
- The US gun stock: results from the 2004 national firearms survey.Inj Prev. 2007; 13: 15-19
- Firearm availability and unintentional firearm deaths.Accid Anal Prev. 2001; 33: 477-484
- Guns in the home and risk of a violent death in the home: findings from a national study.Am J Epidemiol. 2004; 160: 929-936
- Homicide and suicide risks associated with firearms in the home: a national case-control study.Ann Emerg Med. 2003; 41: 771-782
- Factors associated with state variations in homicide, suicide, and unintentional firearm deaths.J Community Health. 2004; 29: 271-283
- One third of households in the USA own firearms which are often stored unsafely.Evid Based Healthc Public Health. 2005; 9: 23-25
Children’s Defense Fund. Protect children not guns 2004. Available at: http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-research-data-publications/data/protect-children-not-guns-report-2004.pdf. Accessed January 3, 2011.
- Nonfatal and fatal firearm-related injuries among children aged 14 years and younger: United States, 1993–2000.Pediatrics. 2004; 113: 1686-1692
- Workplace violence: a survey of emergency physicians in the state of Michigan.Ann Emerg Med. 2005; 46: 142-147
- Implementing means restriction education in urban EDs.Am J Emerg Med. 1998; 16: 257-261
- Firearm restriction as suicide prevention: variation in belief and practice among providers in an urban emergency department.Inj Prev. 2010; 16: 278-281
- Suicide and violence prevention: parent education in the emergency department.J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 1999; 38: 250-255
- Parents’ attitudes toward firearm injury prevention counseling in urban pediatric clinics.Pediatrics. 1995; 96: 649-653
- Adolescent suicide: an opportunity for emergency departments to provide injury prevention education.Am J Emerg Med. 1997; 15: 357-360
- Power analyses in survey research: Importance and use for health educators.Am J Health Educ. 2005; 36: 202-207
- Sleep disorders in children: a national assessment of primary care pediatrician practices and perceptions.Pediatrics. 2011; 128: 539-546
- Graduate psychiatric nurse's training on firearm injury prevention.Arch Psychiatr Nurs. 2011; 25: 245-252
- Sheriffs’ perceptions of firearm control policies.J Community Health. 2011; 36: 715-720
- Increasing response rates to mail questionnaires: a review of inducement strategies.Am J Health Educ. 2001; 32: 4-15
- Increasing response rates to postal questionnaires: systematic review.BMJ. 2002; 324: 1183-1187
- Assault injured adolescents presenting to the emergency department: causes and circumstances.Acad Emerg Med. 2006; 13: 610-616
- Violence prevention in the emergency departments: future research priorities.Acad Emerg Med. 2009; 16: 1089-1095
- Emergency medicine: competencies for youth violence prevention and control.Acad Emerg Med. 2002; 9: 947-956
- Training emergency medicine nurses and physicians in youth violence prevention.Am J Prev Med. 2005; 29: 220-225
- Psychiatrists’ practices and perceptions regarding anticipatory guidance on firearms.Am J Prev Med. 2007; 33: 370-373
Emergency Nurses Association. Position Statement: Firearm Safety (2004). Available at: http://www.ena.org/SiteCollectionDocuments/Position%20Statements/Firearm_Safety_-_ENA_PS.pdf. Accessed June 3, 2012.
Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 28, 2013
Accepted:
November 5,
2012
Received in revised form:
June 28,
2012
Received:
December 27,
2011
Identification
Copyright
© 2013 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
