About

About the Project:

The main objective of this Erasmus + project is to upskill VET educators in the area of concussion education, awareness and management. The project will provide VET educators with up to date relevant information, resources and tools to effectively incorporate concussion-based education into their existing programmes.

The project will achieve this by conducting a systematic literature review (SLR) to measure the current diagnoses of concussion in sport. The SLR findings will inform the development of an Innovative training guide for VET educators on the current knowledge and understanding of concussion across all sports. The findings will also be used to develop the project’s third output – an online, open access module which will serve as a one stop information source for healthcare professionals, coaches and sports and exercise scientists. The online module will provide detailed information on concussion protocols across a range of sports as well as providing access to a supporting resource that will illustrate the complexity and ever evolving understanding of concussion. A key aspect of this project is to encourage the growth and professional development of VET educators and to develop innovative teaching approaches that will enable better concussion related training.

The project is focused on supporting educators and providing continuous professional development to VET teachers, trainers and mentors.

The context for the project is the overwhelming need for professional development in the area of concussion awareness, training and management for VET educators involved in programmes related to health, medical and sports exercise. Concussion is not currently taught in detail to these health professionals that will end up encountering it, contributing to a significant knowledge gap in terms of understanding and management of concussion on a broader European and global scale. This lack of training and awareness of concussion means that future sports personnel and health professionals may be ill equipped to diagnose and treat concussions that they will undoubtedly be faced with on numerous occasions in their careers.

Addressing the current misinformation around the mechanisms, duration, awareness, treatment and complexity of the ‘invisible injury’, this project is the first step to developing a combined continental approach to cataloguing, educating and quantifying the issue of concussion in a recreation and sporting context.

The project will address the need to upskill VET educators on how to develop innovative pedagogies for delivering concussion-specific training to sport and exercise students and health professionals for the Sports and Health Sectors. The project will achieve this through the development of three key outputs, which will have a cascading effect on the professional development of VET educators and will ultimately lead to better training to support those that may encounter concussion-related injuries in their future careers.

The project outputs are:

O1. A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

Focused on current diagnoses of concussion.

O2. An Innovative training guide

Designed for VET educators on the current knowledge and understanding of concussion across all sports (informed by the findings of O1).

O3. An online training course

That will be aimed at sports and exercise students/ those involved in sport, coaches, parents and sports organisations/ clubs. The course will provide detailed information on concussion protocols across a range of sports as well as providing access to a range of supporting resources that will illustrate the complexity and ever evolving understanding of concussion.

The aim of the project is to develop an in-depth understanding of the definition and implications of concussion in a sport and exercise setting through: