In 2010, there were 134 deaths attributed to unintentional firearm injuries of children under 19 year and 3,019 nonfatal injuries (CDC, 2011). Nurses are expected to identify potential dangers in the community and protect those at risk. It was found that there is limited research on the effectiveness of current firearm injury prevention practices of nurses. The study was designed to examine the knowledge, attitudes and practice characteristics of Emergency Nurses toward firearm prevention practices. A convenience sample of 189 emergency nurses completed a voluntary, anonymous survey on practices regarding childhood gun safety. Seventy-one percent of respondents agreed that firearm violence is a problem in the community where they practice and almost half (47.7%) of the nurses believed that firearm injury prevention guidance would help reduce the risk of firearm injury or death to children and adolescents. However, when asked who usually discusses firearm safety with patients or families in their emergency departments most of the respondents (86.6%) indicated \"no one.\" Factors of Gun ownership, growing up with firearms and state of practice were found to be the strongest predictive factors in stepwise regression. In addition the study found that most educated nurse would be the ones to institute change in their organization. The study helps to identify characteristics in the emergency nurse that would be willing to support firearm injury prevention education in the emergency department.
","abstract_html":"<p>In 2010, there were 134 deaths attributed to unintentional firearm injuries of children under 19 year and 3,019 nonfatal injuries (CDC, 2011). Nurses are expected to identify potential dangers in the community and protect those at risk. It was found that there is limited research on the effectiveness of current firearm injury prevention practices of nurses. The study was designed to examine the knowledge, attitudes and practice characteristics of Emergency Nurses toward firearm prevention practices. A convenience sample of 189 emergency nurses completed a voluntary, anonymous survey on practices regarding childhood gun safety. Seventy-one percent of respondents agreed that firearm violence is a problem in the community where they practice and almost half (47.7%) of the nurses believed that firearm injury prevention guidance would help reduce the risk of firearm injury or death to children and adolescents. However, when asked who usually discusses firearm safety with patients or families in their emergency departments most of the respondents (86.6%) indicated "no one." Factors of Gun ownership, growing up with firearms and state of practice were found to be the strongest predictive factors in stepwise regression. In addition the study found that most educated nurse would be the ones to institute change in their organization. The study helps to identify characteristics in the emergency nurse that would be willing to support firearm injury prevention education in the emergency department.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Gomez, Dorothy Ann"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Nursing","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2013,"date_issued":"2013-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2013-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:55:56Z","subjects":["Emergency Nurse","Firearm injury","Firearm injury prevention","Firerams","Nursing"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/895","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Gomez, Dorothy Ann"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2016-03-31T17:16:39Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Nursing"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Emergency Nurse","Firearm injury","Firearm injury prevention","Firerams","Nursing"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/895"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["In 2010, there were 134 deaths attributed to unintentional firearm injuries of children under 19 year and 3,019 nonfatal injuries (CDC, 2011). Nurses are expected to identify potential dangers in the community and protect those at risk. It was found that there is limited research on the effectiveness of current firearm injury prevention practices of nurses. The study was designed to examine the knowledge, attitudes and practice characteristics of Emergency Nurses toward firearm prevention practices. A convenience sample of 189 emergency nurses completed a voluntary, anonymous survey on practices regarding childhood gun safety. Seventy-one percent of respondents agreed that firearm violence is a problem in the community where they practice and almost half (47.7%) of the nurses believed that firearm injury prevention guidance would help reduce the risk of firearm injury or death to children and adolescents. However, when asked who usually discusses firearm safety with patients or families in their emergency departments most of the respondents (86.6%) indicated \"no one.\" Factors of Gun ownership, growing up with firearms and state of practice were found to be the strongest predictive factors in stepwise regression. In addition the study found that most educated nurse would be the ones to institute change in their organization. The study helps to identify characteristics in the emergency nurse that would be willing to support firearm injury prevention education in the emergency department.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Emergency Nurses' Knowledge, Attitudes and Preventive Practices Regarding Firearms and Firearm Injury Prevention for Children"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:creator":["Gomez, Dorothy Ann"],"dc:date.available":["2016-03-31T17:16:39Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["In 2010, there were 134 deaths attributed to unintentional firearm injuries of children under 19 year and 3,019 nonfatal injuries (CDC, 2011). Nurses are expected to identify potential dangers in the community and protect those at risk. It was found that there is limited research on the effectiveness of current firearm injury prevention practices of nurses. The study was designed to examine the knowledge, attitudes and practice characteristics of Emergency Nurses toward firearm prevention practices. A convenience sample of 189 emergency nurses completed a voluntary, anonymous survey on practices regarding childhood gun safety. Seventy-one percent of respondents agreed that firearm violence is a problem in the community where they practice and almost half (47.7%) of the nurses believed that firearm injury prevention guidance would help reduce the risk of firearm injury or death to children and adolescents. However, when asked who usually discusses firearm safety with patients or families in their emergency departments most of the respondents (86.6%) indicated \"no one.\" Factors of Gun ownership, growing up with firearms and state of practice were found to be the strongest predictive factors in stepwise regression. In addition the study found that most educated nurse would be the ones to institute change in their organization. The study helps to identify characteristics in the emergency nurse that would be willing to support firearm injury prevention education in the emergency department.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/895"],"dc:subject":["Emergency Nurse","Firearm injury","Firearm injury prevention","Firerams","Nursing"],"dc:title":["Emergency Nurses' Knowledge, Attitudes and Preventive Practices Regarding Firearms and Firearm Injury Prevention for Children"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Nursing"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:55:56Z"}