Funded Projects

Philadelphia Youth Stop the Bleed Training

Project Year

2026

City & State

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Program Name

Implementation

Topic

Injury & Violence (LHI)

Program Description

Problem: Accidental trauma is the leading cause of fatal and nonfatal injury among children in the United States [1]. In 2019, homicide surpassed suicide as the nation’s second leading cause of death in children, the vast majority of which are secondary to firearms [1]. Children in Philadelphia experience disproportionate exposure to injury risk factors and inequities in health education and access to health care, resulting in increased morbidity and mortality secondary to injuries.  Addressing these injury risk factors requires large-scale multifactorial primary prevention strategies; However, secondary prevention strategies, such as equipping schools with bleeding control supplies and training youth to recognize and initially stabilize traumatic injury as a bridge to definitive care, may mitigate the impacts of the aforementioned health education and health care access inequities.  

Number of Children Affected: In 2018, children accounted for more than 43,000 injury-related ED visits in Philadelphia [2]. In addition, unintentional and intentional injuries accounted for over 350 and 550 deaths, respectively, from 2011 to 2017 [3]. City-level data describing penetrating injury remains limited.  Proposed Intervention: Created by the American College of Surgeons, Stop the Bleed® (STB) teaches lay bystanders how to recognize and acutely stabilize life threatening hemorrhage secondary to penetrating trauma using direct pressure, wound packing and tourniquets. Prior literature suggests that, with appropriate education, high school students can accurately recognize life-threatening bleeding and can confidently and correctly apply tourniquets [4].  Our proposed intervention is to bring STB training to students at Philadelphia schools. Following the sessions, we plan to provide schools with free bleeding control kits, to be utilized in case of emergencies. Each kit is a wall-mountable station including materials (instructional cards, tourniquets, protective equipment, compression bandages, gauze) to address up to eight injuries.  To aid in sustainability, we plan to certify school faculty (E.g. Nurses, Health Educators) as STB instructors and provide free training supplies (E.g. Training tourniquets, gauze, limb task trainers), such that faculty have the knowledge, skills and resources to offer future training sessions at their respective schools.  Primary Setting: To mitigate access barriers (E.g. Transportation, protected time) and to optimize psychological safety of the learning environment, our team plans to deliver STB training in the schools directly.  

Project Goal: Our primary goals are to improve: (1) Youths’ recognition of life-threatening hemorrhage, (2) Youths’ knowledge about direct pressure, wound packing and tourniquet application, and (3) Access to bleeding control supplies in schools. To facilitate sustainability, an additional goal is to increase the number of school faculty certified as STB instructors, such that they can provide future training sessions. A final goal is to increase youth exposure to health professions through our multidisciplinary team, including pediatric trainees, EMS personnel and nurses, advanced practitioners and attendings from emergency medicine, critical care medicine and trauma subspecialties.  

Anticipated Outcomes: We anticipate that STB training will improve youth’s ability to recognize and effectively apply direct pressure, wound packing and tourniquets to life-threatening hemorrhage. Likewise, we anticipate that the distribution of bleeding control kits will mitigate barriers to schools obtaining these life-saving supplies.

Project Goal

The primary goals of our proposed project are to improve: (1) Youths’ ability to recognize life-threatening hemorrhage, (2) Youths’ understanding of bleeding control techniques, including direct pressure, wound packing and tourniquet application, and (3) Availability of bleeding control supplies within school settings.  To promote long-term sustainability, an additional goal is to expand the number of school staff trained and certified as STB instructors, as well as to increase availability of STB training supplies (E.g. Training tourniquets, gauze, limb task trainers) in schools, thereby enabling them to independently deliver future training sessions.  Lastly, the program seeks to broaden youths’ exposure to health careers by engaging a multidisciplinary instructional team that includes pediatric trainees, EMS professionals and nurses, advanced practice providers, and attending physicians from emergency medicine, critical care, and trauma specialties.

Project Objective 1

By the end of the implementation period, we will deliver STB training sessions to a goal of at least 60 students and 1 school health faculty per partner school, with a focus on schools serving marginalized youth in high SVI neighborhoods.

Project Objective 2

By the end of the implementation period, we will increase the number of bleeding control kits (by one), training tourniquets (by 10), training wound packing gauze (by four) and limb task trainers (by one) per participating school, with a focus on schools serving marginalized youth in high SVI neighborhoods.

Project Objective 3

By the end of each training session, we will increase (by ~20%, per Likert-Scale item) the percent of students strongly agreeing with having the knowledge, confidence and preparedness to recognize and respond to life threatening bleeding.

AAP District

District III

Institutional Name

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Contact 1

Khoon-Yen Tay, MD

Contact 2

Rachel Rothstein, MD, MPH