Week 1, Day 1

Welcome to the first day of your externship with Concussion Alliance! We are excited to work with you and to get to know you better. Thank you for joining us.

We are looking forward to helping you get up to speed on your concussion knowledge and then up and running on your projects this week. You’ll have concussion curriculum every day, and we’ll spend time on remote teamwork and shared learning. You’ll also start doing background research on your projects and learn about our process in preparation for writing for the newsletter next week.

Our first expert guest speaker is Dan Fogarty on Thursday; Dan is a concussion patient and advocate, as well as a CA community member. We’ll also be having a discussion on Shaken Brain on Friday.

There are three Tasks to do today:

Basecamp

  • Sign in to Basecamp (you will receive an email invitation).

  • Watch these seven (under 2 minute) Basecamp tutorials.

  • Send us your photo and a short bio (via Slack) so we can add your to our Internship Program page.

Job specific sign-ins and training

  • Science writers

    • sign-in to Squarespace (you will receive an email invitation) and take a look around. We will assign specific tutorials Wednesday.

  • Digital & social media externs

    • Sign-in to Canva and take a look around. We will assign specific tutorials Wednesday.

    • Sign-in to Powtoon and take a look around. We will assign specific tutorials Wednesday.

Sign up for a 15-minute time slot tomorrow to talk with me and Kailey - we’ll be assigning your projects and checking in on how the program’s going so far. Link to Google Sheet

Work through this curriculum for today:

We’ve provided a group of educational resources below. We’ve listed them in an order that we hope will build on your understanding of concussions as you go through them.

  1. Read this section from CATT: Overview: What is a concussion? Read all four sections: Recognize, Respond, Manage, Prevent.

 
 

2. Chris Giza, MD, gives a superb presentation at the 2019 Concussion Summit. Dr. Giza is the Director of the Steve Tisch BrainSPORT Program at UCLA. Dr. Giza also helps Concussion Alliance with referrals for patients we consult with.

Don’t worry about feeling comfortable with all of these topics right away, Dr. Giza goes through a lot in this video. We think that it provides an interesting overview of the complexities of the injury that can make it so difficult to treat.

This video features:

  • A fantastic explanation of the neurometabolic cascade pathology of concussion, a well-accepted theory that Dr. Giza developed

  • Male / female difference in concussions

  • Blood biomarkers

  • Rest vs. Aerobic exercise in recovery

  • Neurodegeneration and CTE

  • Evaluating research

  • Persistent post-concussion symptoms

3. Listen to “This is What a Concussion Sounds Like,” a 6-minute radio story from Seattle NPR member station KUOW hosted on our personal stories page

4. Take a look at this Concussion Pathway flowchart from CATTOnline, which provides an excellent decision framework for concussion diagnosis and acute care.

5. Read chapter 1 of “Shaken Brain: The Science, Care, and Treatment of Concussion” (p. 1-32)

  • We’ll be having a group discussion on chapters 1-3 this Friday