Corewell Health primary care providers barriers, knowledge and attitudes toward firearm safety counseling and training

Abstract

The firearm violence epidemic in our country is unfortunately familiar to many of us. It is thought that physicians, specifically those in primary care, may be in a unique position to counsel patients on firearm safety. However, much of the research done in this area is focused on interventions in pediatrics and emergency medicine, and very little assesses how training in this area affects provider’s competency to counsel patients in the primary care setting.

In the spring of 2023, a firearm safety counseling module was assigned to all PCPs employed at Corewell Health facilities in the Grand Rapids area. The American Academy of Pediatrics then provided funding for T-shirts to providers who had completed the training as well as gun locks to distribute to patients. This study is interested in targeting the gap in knowledge between identifying barriers to counseling patients on firearm safety and addressing these barriers; specifically, we are interested in the role that the firearm safety counseling module, as well as effects of distributed interventional methods, plays in eliminating barriers to conversations with patients around firearm safety in the primary care setting. This could be an important step in addressing the barriers that limit providers from having these conversations with patients, and it could provide information on the success of institution-assigned training around firearm safety.