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A concussion is a term used for mild or minor head injuries where a fall or an impact causes the brain to shake and rebound within the skull, causing mild damage. Leading causes of concussion include road traffic accidents, falls, physical assaults and sports injuries.
A concussion can cause temporary issues to brain function, leading the patient to experience after-effects for a number of weeks. Concussion symptoms can include nausea, headaches, dizziness, mental confusion, sensitivity to light, distorted vision and an inability to process or retain information.
Close monitoring of patients following a mild head injury is essential because there is a small risk of them developing complications that need emergency medical treatment. However, most concussion symptoms will resolve in a few days to a few weeks following the injury.
It is possible that patients can suffer from symptoms that persist for much longer, and this is called post-concussion syndrome.
Advising patients to seek medical help
Patients treated for mild head injuries should be advised about concussion symptoms they may experience following their head injury.
While there is a small risk of a patient going on to develop more severe complications, patients should be advised to seek out urgent medical help ASAP should any of the following concussion symptoms develop in the next few days following the injury:
- Any fits, collapsing or passing out suddenly
- Bleeding from one or both ears
- Blurred or double vision
- Clear fluid seeping out of your ears or nose
- Deafness or loss of hearing in one or both ears
- Difficulty understanding or speaking
- Disorientation or confusion
- Drowsiness when you would typically be alert
- Inability to be woken
- Loss of balance or difficulty walking
- Loss of consciousness
- Severe headaches not relieved by painkillers such as paracetamol
- Vomiting
- Weakness in one or both arms or legs
PDUK offers the following courses for medical professionals and primary care practitioners involved in patient basic injury review and care.
This fully interactive, hands-on minor injury training programme has been designed to help community healthcare practitioners who include basic patient injury review and care. The course will empower healthcare professionals with the confidence and skills needed to tackle patients presenting with minor injuries.
It is an ideal course for ANPs, Junior doctors, Nurse practitioners, Practice nurses, School nurses and allied health professionals that are often the first line of contact for first aid and minor injury treatment.
The training programme runs over three days: Day 1- 09:30 am- 5:00 pm, Day 2 & 3- 10:00 am- 5:00 pm. All course materials, evaluation and certificate of attendance are provided.
The aims and objectives of this training course include the following:
- Apply history-taking essentials, thereby promoting safe practice
- Be able to examine and manage various types of wounds. To include closure techniques and patient education
- Develop competency in some standard basic minor clinical procedures
- Discuss appropriate management of common traumatic MSK presentations, including principles of analgesia and supportive therapy
- Link and apply anatomy of upper and lower body musculoskeletal (MSK) structures to a variety of physical assessment techniques
AOL20 Minor injury essentials Online: Accredited by the RCN Centre for Professional Accreditation
This online course is held over Zoom and is based on our extremely popular Minor Injury Essentials face-to-face workshop. You will gain many of the same skills and knowledge delivered in our face-to-face course, but you will learn them in our interactive virtual classroom.
This course has been developed to meet the needs of healthcare practitioners responsible for assessing, treating and managing basic injuries. Course participants will gain more skills and confidence in dealing with minor injury presentations.
It is an ideal course for Junior doctors, Nurse practitioners, Practice nurses, School nurses and allied health professionals wanting to improve or refresh their minor injury treatment skills. The course runs from 09:30 am-5:00 pm on day one and 10:00 am- 5:00 pm on days 2 & 3.
The aims and objectives of this course include the following:
- Apply history-taking essentials, thereby promoting safe practice
- Link and apply anatomy of upper and lower body musculoskeletal (MSK) structures to a variety of physical assessment techniques
- Discuss appropriate management of common traumatic MSK presentations, including principles of analgesia and supportive therapy
- Be able to examine and manage various types of wounds
- Practice some common basic minor clinical procedures
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