Hospital School Simulation Rubric Determining School Reintegration Needs of Traumatic Brain Injury Patients

Research Objectives: To investigate using a case study of a School Simulation Rubric with traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients in a simulated hospital school setting.

Design: Case study

Setting: An academic, tertiary, free standing pediatric hospital with a CARF accredited Acute Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit (IRU).

Participants: Pediatric patients diagnosed with TBI in Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit

Interventions: Hospital School Simulation Rubric was utilized to determine what school interventions would be needed when patients with Traumatic Brain Injuries returned to school.
The Tool: A school simulation rubric was developed to evaluate the following areas:
• Attention
• Mobility
• Problem solving
• Processing information
• Receptive language (listening)
• Expressive language (speaking)

The Rubric evaluation tool helped inpatient school coordinator:

• Determine school reintegration plans
• Make recommendations for best practice in school reintegration

Main Outcome Measures: The main outcome measure was to improve the quality of communication between the medical providers and the schools through the use of the hospital school simulation rubric.

Results: The hospital school simulation rubric improved the communication between the hospital and the schools with each patient it was used on.

Conclusions: This Hospital school simulation rubric provided valuable information to the medical team, which has led to improved communication to schools allowing them the knowledge needed to provide accommodations to students reintegrating back to school following traumatic brain injuries. School plays an important role in the successful educational outcomes of each child and it would be beneficial to continue to research ways in which we could improve communication between hospitals and schools following a TBI.

Author(s) Disclosures: No conflicts of interest.