Understanding Patients with Traumatic Brain Injury

Course overview

Course Description: This course is based upon material published in the National Academies Press OpenBook and is available as an open-access article. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) needs to be viewed and managed as a condition, not a one time event, and it needs to be viewed through a framework that considers multiple factors. The bio-psycho-socio-ecological model recognizes that injury and recovery are influenced by an interplay among many elements physical and medical, psychological and behavioral, and social and economic, among others. This framework enables a more complete understanding of complex conditions such as TBI. Multiple factors affect a person's access to care and an increased likelihood of negative outcomes after TBI, including age, preinjury status, presence of comorbidities, and propensity for resilience, as well as social and environmental factors related to sex/gender, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, insurance status, employment status, geographic location, and social and family support. Although studies have identified these factors, the ways in which these varied factors interact to cause the reported effects remain largely unknown. The health care system needs to function as a lens to direct or redirect the trajectory of a person's care and recovery after TBI toward an optimal path. People who experience TBI may encounter the health care system at multiple points as their symptoms arise, abate, or change or as they experience more than one TBI. This course on the complex nature of traumatic brain injury is designed for social workers, professional counselors, psychologists, nurses, and substance abuse counselors, who do clinical work. In addition, this course is appropriate for beginning, intermediate and advanced level practitioners who wish to develop their knowledge of the complex nature of traumatic brain injury. The course material includes a literature review of interventions and research. It may also be useful for licensed clinicians who require continuing clinical education courses for license renewal. The course is based on a journal article that includes research. It contains statistical analysis and data that some clinicians enjoy reading and others do not. A significant benefit of reading research-based articles for continuing education is they provide practitioners with the latest findings in their field. Authors: The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Learning Objectives: This course will provide the practitioner with detailed information regarding the complex nature of traumatic brain injury. Specifically, a professional will: Identify biomedical, psychosocial, and ecological aspects of traumatic brain injuries. Recognize disparities and inequities in outcomes of traumatic brain injury and access to care. Describe recommendations designed to address inequity to health care. Citation: Understanding Patients with Traumatic Brain Injury. (2023). The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, 1-34. https://doi.org/10.17226/25394