Attitudes and practices surrounding primary care firearm safety counseling before and after a single pragmatic mixed-methods education session.

Abstract

Firearm violence is the leading cause of death among young adults and children. It is unclear whether primary care providers have adequate training in firearm safety counseling or incorporate it into routine care. This study aimed to address this gap by surveying primary care providers before and after a mixed-methods educational session on firearm safety counseling. We hypothesized this would increase firearm safety counseling at primary care provider well-being visits. A 10-minute didactic/video-based educational session was adapted from existing resources from the BulletPoints Project's curriculum on firearm safety counseling. This was delivered to participants recruited through departmental faculty meetings (2023-2024). A 22-question anonymous survey, adapted from previously validated questionnaires assessing firearm safety counseling among primary care providers, was performed immediately prior to this education via REDCap. Follow-up surveys were sent 3 months later with bivariate pre-/post- comparisons. Of 71 primary care providers who attended the educational session, 47 (55% response rate) consented to participate and completed prestudy surveys (57% family medicine, 17% pediatrics, 17% internal medicine, 9% other). Of these, 21 of 47 (44.7%) completed follow-up surveys. The reported frequency of firearm safety counseling at well-being visits increased in the post- compared with prestudy responses (33% vs 13% reported counseling >75% of their wellness visits, P = .014) and fewer primary care providers reported not knowing what to tell families to prevent firearm injuries in the poststudy cohort (13% vs 36%, P = .018). A brief educational session for primary care providers improved the 3-month post education rate of firearm safety counseling at primary care provider well-being visits. Future research is needed to evaluate continued retention and whether this is an effective form of primary firearm injury prevention.