Improving Big Splashy Day: Utilizing Community Feedback to Strengthen Water Safety Event

Morgan Marsh, BS
Melissa Kwan, MD, FAAP

Drowning is one of the leading causes of injury-related death among young children in the United States. For the second year, we hosted a free water safety advocacy event for families of children from 5-12 years old at a community hospital in a large metropolitan area. Not only did this community-based event provide vital education to parents and kids, but we also provided various layers of protection such as providing life jackets and CPR education. We hope to continue improving the event to better serve the community. We conducted this quality improvement (QI) project to learn more about care givers’ opinions about Big Splashy Day to enhance the event and contribute to lowering the childhood drowning statistics.

The 3-hour event was hosted in conference rooms at the community hospital. The day started with a keynote speaker from a local drowning prevention organization, followed by stations that included sizing for life jackets, CPR training, engaging activities to learn about water safety, and multiple vendors disseminating injury prevention information. The QI project was a survey given to adult attendees at the end of the event via a QR code.

The survey received 11 responses. Most heard about Big Splashy Day because they worked at the hospital and attended because they wanted their child(ren) to learn about water safety. 87.8% said the booths were their favorite part of the event. Each aspect of the event was given a rating of 1 being not helpful to 10 being very helpful, as shown in Table 1. 100% felt confident that they could identify things that might be dangerous for their child around water and 100% felt confident that they knew where to find help or tools to make their home safer. 63.6% said the event significantly changed how they thought about drowning risk. 90.9% felt that the length of the event was just right and felt that each booth had adequate time. 72.7% strongly agreed that the event was easy to find and navigate. 100% of responders said they would attend other injury prevention events.

This project found that many caregivers found the event highly effective and able to translate a high amount of information in a short period of time. All respondents felt confident in identifying dangers, and the highest rated event was the life jacket fittings which gave families new life jackets donated from a partner organization. Aspects in which we can improve are our promotion of the event, navigation of the venue, and to enhance the stations to have more activity booths for kids that facilitate learning. These findings will help optimize future events to what the community finds most interesting and most helpful to improve water safety.

Describe what aspects of an advocacy event community participants find most helpful.

Discover ways to improve community advocacy events.

Evaluate the impact of a community advocacy event.