1. Kasha Martin Jamie Paiva Marsha Thomas Brandie Zimmerman
Texting While driving
Kasha Martin
Jamie Paiva
Marsha Thomas
Brandie Zimmerman

2. Introduction: Texting While driving
Growing concern for distracted driving and vehicle crashes, especially with teenage drivers (O’Brien, Goodwin, & Foss, 2010, p. 549).
Cell phone use
Texting while driving: The most risky driving activity among all cell phone-related tasks (Madden & Lenhart, 2009, p. 3)
“The single most serious health problem of our teen population” (Thompson, 2010, p. 183)
More teenagers killed than drugs, alcohol, suicide, and homicides combined (as cited in Thompson, 2010, p. 183)
In recent years, there has been a growing concern of distracted driving and vehicle crashes. Of these distractions, cell phone use has received a lot of attention (O’Brien, Goodwin, & Foss, 2010, p. 549). These crashes are the single most serious health problem of our teen population and kill more teenagers than drugs, alcohol, suicide, and homicides combined (as cited in Thompson, 2010, p. 183). Research has shown that there are a variety of tasks that can draw a driver’s eyes away from the roadway. However, texting is associated with the highest risk among all cell phone-related tasks (Madden & Lenhart, 2009, p. 3).

3. Introduction: Texting while driving
The following presentation will discuss:
Demographics
Cultural descriptors that impact health
Statistics related to population and risk factors
Community risk
The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB)
Our plan of action to reduce the rates of teenagers that text while driving, the setting that it will take place, and plan for evaluating its effectiveness
Three goals of Health People 2020 that support the need to focus on anti-texting while driving initiatives

4. Demographics
Highest incidence of distracted drivers occurs in the under-20 age group (Madden & Lenhart, 2009, p. 3)
Licensed teen drivers in high school
Aged (O’Brien, Goodwin, & Foss, 2010, p. 549; Madden & Lenhart, 2009, p. 3)
Boys and girls are equally likely to report texting behind the wheel (Madden & Lenhart, 2009, p. 4)
The highest incidence of distracted drivers occurs in the under-20 age group (Madden & Lenhart, 2009, p. 3). However, this presentation is focusing on licensed teen drivers in high school. The highest percentage of teens that have a cell phone are those aged (O’Brian, Goodwin, & Foss, 2010, p. 549; Madden & Lenhart, 2009, p. 3). Among these drivers, boys are girls are equally likely to report texting behind the wheel (Madden & Lenhart, 2009, p. 4).

5. Cultural Descriptors that Impact Health
Teenagers are inexperienced drivers
Texting while driving is more socially accepted in the teenage population (Hoff et al., 2013, p. 34)
Neurocognitive development
Prefrontal cortex of brain is still developing until mid-20’s (Thompson, 2010, p. 185).
Adolescents are capable of recognizing and understanding risks but are unable to act in accordance with this understanding (O’Brien, Goodwin, & Foss, 2010, p. 553).
In the teenage culture, there are a couple of descriptors that impact teen health in relation to texting in driving. The first is that they are inexperienced at driving. Teenagers are generally not knowledgeable and lack experience of what is and what is not safe to do while driving (O’Brien, Goodwin, & Foss, 2010, p. 553). The second descriptor is that most of the teenage driving population finds texting while driving to be a socially acceptable behavior (Hoff et al., 2013, p. 34). As cited in O’Brien, Goodwin, & Foss (2010), it was found that “perceived group norms significantly predicted intentions to engage in texting behavior among young drivers” (p. 553). The third description is a teenager’s neurocognitive development. A teenager’s prefrontal cortex of their brain is still developing until their mid-20’s. This area of the brain is vital for processing impulse control, decision making, understanding consequences, organizing thoughts, and maintaining attention and focus; all of which play crucial roles in being able to drive safely (Thompson, 2010, p. 185). Adolescents are capable of recognizing and understanding risks, but are unable to act in accordance to this understanding (O’Brien, Goodwin, & Foss, 2010, p. 553).

6. Statistics related to population and risk factors
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2013):
Distracted drivers using cell phones process 50% less environmental information needed to operate a motor vehicle safely
Last year 390,000 people were injured in car crashes resulting from driver distraction
9 people die everyday as the result of distracted driving accidents
69% of drivers in U.S. have used their cell phones while driving in the past 30 days
Research done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2013) found that each day 1060 people are injured in car crashes related to a distracted driver. Distracted driving means taking your eyes off the road, your hands off the wheel, and your mind off of driving (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2013).

7. Statistics related to population and risk factors
In a survey conducted by Hoff et al. (2013) 1857 licensed drivers were surveyed for driver distraction and behavior (p. 31). The results for driver distraction are listed below.
Hoff et al. (2013) looked at the driving habits of licensed adults and the behaviors they engaged in while driving (p. 31). Unfortunately they found that the adults in their study failed to see the danger of engaging in other activities while driving, not unlike licensed teenage drivers. This study points out that distracted driving is not an issue isolated to the teenage population of drivers.

8. Statistics related to population and risk factors
A survey was conducted with 800 teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17. They were asked about their experiences as passengers and drivers related to distracted driving (Madden & Lenhart, 2009, p. 8).
Age
Passenger in Car While
Driver-Texting
Passenger in Car While Driver Talking on Cell Phone
Driver Texting While Driving
Driver Talking on Cell Phone While Driving
12-15
48%
40%
N/A
16-17
64%
32%
54%
Madden and Lenhart (2009) studied the behaviors and attitudes of teenage passengers and drivers related to cell phone use. They found that “teen texters are more likely than teen non-texters to be a passenger of a distracted driver” (p. 8). They also found that older teens (16-17) were more likely than younger teens to be the passenger of a teen driver that texts while driving (Madden & Lenhart, 2009, p. 9).

9. Statistics related to population and risk factors
Another study surveyed teens to find out about their cell phone usage while driving (O’Brien, Goodwin, & Foss, 2010, p. 550) questionnaires were sent out, 539 were completed of which only 320 were licensed to drive unsupervised and could be used.
O’Brien, Goodwin, and Foss (2010) conducted a study looking at the frequency of cell phone use among teenagers while driving along with their attitudes on cell phone and their behavior related to it (p. 551). The study found that 71% of teenage drivers text while driving (O’Brien, Goodwin, & Foss, p. 551). The study also found that texting and driving occurs almost as frequently as talking while driving (79%) (O’Brien, Goodwin, & Foss, 2010, p. 551).
Do you text and drive?
Do you talk and drive?
71%
79%

10. Community Risk
Texting while driving: it increases the risk of car crashes, resulting in injuries and deaths (Thompson, 2010, p. 183)
EVERYONE is at risk: drivers, passengers and pedestrians
Texting while driving is a socially accepted practice (Hoff et al., 2013, p. 34)
False sense of security
The increased use and accessibility to cell phones has caused an increase in distracted driving and the potential for harm to communities and its members as a result. In all the previously mentioned research studies, there was a consensus about distracted driving: it increases the risk of car crashes, resulting in injuries and deaths. All communities and their members are at risk of being harmed due to distracted driving, whether as a driver, passenger or pedestrian. The majority of the US teen population find texting while driving to be a socially acceptable practice (Hoff et al., 2013, p. 34). This creates a false sense of security, increasing the numbers of people that text and drive (Hoff et al., 2013, p. 34).

11. Health belief model: Theory of planned behavior
States that a person’s attitude toward a behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control are all factors that influence a person’s intentions and behaviors (Pender, Murdaugh, & Parsons, 2011, p ).
By understanding the The Theory of Planned Behavior, we can better identify areas that can be influenced towards practicing safer behaviors. Our plan of action targets the areas of “attitudes towards the behavior” (to change the attitude that it is not safe to text while driving) and the area of subjective norm (make it a socially unacceptable practice in the teenage population of drivers).
Source:

12. Plan of action Our Mission: Our Objectives:
To reduce the number of high school drivers that report that they text while driving by raising awareness of the risks and dangers.
Our Objectives:
By March 2015, to increase by 30% the self-reporting of high school teenage drivers that do not text and drive.
Our plan of action aims to educate our target population of high school drivers that texting while driving is a dangerous activity, and should be avoided at all costs. Based on the Community Tool Box website’s “A Model for Getting Started” section, we were able to create a strategic plan using the VMOSA (Vision, Mission, Objectives, Strategies, and Action Plans) model (Community Tool Box, 2013). By clearly defining our mission and our objectives, it paved the way to creating a step by step plan to reach out to our target population of teenage high school drivers. Our plan is to participate in high school assemblies and present information in the format of PowerPoint and video presentation, guest speakers, and pass out educational materials that give guidance on how to stop texting and driving.

13. Setting for Plan of Action
High schools
Assemblies: Presentation and guest speakers
Driver education courses offered through the school
Our plan of action is focused on teenage drivers, so our setting is targeted at high school students. We can distribute and collect information at an assembly designed to provide information and collect data for our action plan. Driver education courses offer an opportunity to reach out to teenage drivers before they start driving and develop dangerous behaviors such as texting and driving.

14. Plan of action: Step 1 of 5
Action Step 1: Gather at least 100 behavioral survey responses from high school drivers that own cell phones from each of five area high schools, and calculate the data gathered from surveys.
Person(s) Responsible: Kasha Martin, Jamie Paiva, Marsha Thomas, and Brandie Zimmerman
Date to be Completed: April 2014
Resources Required: $1,500 for printing costs
Potential Barriers or Resistance: Teens being reluctant to take survey/reluctant to answer truthfully for fear of getting in trouble (must reinforce that surveys are completely confidential)
Collaborators: High school administrators and high school students that drive and own cell phones
The first step of our plan of action is to gather data from high school students that drive to get a baseline of how many students text and drive, how often, their attitudes about it, if they feel it is a safe or dangerous practice, and so on. Our main goal for this step, however, is to find out what percentage of high school students currently text and drive. It will serve as a comparison for evaluation of effectiveness of our intervention of educating students about the dangers of texting while driving.

15. Plan of action: Step 2 of 5
Action Step 2: Securing printed educational materials.
Person Responsible: Kasha Martin
Date to be Completed: May 2014
Resources Required: $7,000 for printing costs
Potential Barriers or Resistance: None
Collaborators: Casey Anderson Feldman Foundation and the NHTSA
The second step of our plan is to find and print off educational materials. There are many anti-texting and driving campaigns that offer free materials to use within your community to bring more awareness of the dangers and risks. The Casey Anderson Feldman Foundation offers a free flyer/contract of agreement that lists a large number of ways to reduce texting and driving, that can be found at The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) also has free promotional materials that can be printed off and handed out at

16. Plan of action: Step 3 of 5
Action Step 3: Find guest speaker(s) (a victim of texting and driving/someone who personally caused harm to others due to their texting and driving)
Person Responsible: Jamie Paiva
Date to be Completed: June 2014
Resources Required: Internet and phone access
Potential Barriers or Resistance: Potential speaker not having time to participate in all assemblies/not willing to speak in public (stage fright) (must convince of the importance of topic and their ability to save lives!)
Collaborators: Guest speaker(s)
Step three includes finding one or more guest speakers. Guest speakers of people that have endured hardships from either causing harm to others due to their texting and driving and/or of people being harmed by another person who was texting and driving would give high school teenager's real life stories to relate to and learn from. Instead of being lectured, students can learn from people that have had their lives impacted by someone that caused harm due to texting and driving.

17. Plan of action: Step 4 of 5
Action Step 4: Create a minute presentation to be performed in high school assemblies.
Person Responsible: Marsh Thomas
Date to be Completed: August 2014
Resources Required: Internet access and PowerPoint software
Potential Barriers or Resistance: Potential speaker not having time to participate in all assemblies/not willing to speak in public (stage fright) (must convince of the importance and their ability to save lives!)
Collaborators: Guest speaker(s)
Step four includes creating a presentation to be given at high school assemblies. This presentation will include statistics about the dangers of texting while driving, videos, and allow for the guest speakers to add any information that they feel is important for their portion of the presentation.

18. Plan of action: Step 5 of 5
Action Step 5: Secure time slots for presenting and handing out educational material during high school assemblies, then perform presentations.
Person Responsible: Brandie Zimmerman
Date to be Completed: June 2014 through February 2015
Resources Required: Internet and phone access
Potential Barriers or Resistance: High schools not having time available during their assemblies to accommodate presentation (must convince them of importance of topic and the safety of their students and anyone on the road/negotiate to reduce time of presentation)
Collaborators: High school administrators
Step five of our action plan includes securing time slots for our presentation within pre-scheduled high school assemblies or convincing high school administrators that they should hold an assembly specifically for our presentation. High schools are our target setting, and ensuring that we can reach our target population of high school drivers is critical to the success of our action plan.

19. Plan of action: Evaluate
Hand out the same behavioral surveys that were given the year prior to at least 100 high school drivers that own cell phones from each of the same five area high schools, and calculate the data gathered from surveys. Compare data to 2015 data.
After we have implemented our plan of action, we will again survey the students in the same manner, and using the same survey as before. We can calculate data to see if we have attained our goal in reducing the number of high school drivers that report they text while driving by 30%.

20. Healthy people 2020: adolescent health
Goal:
“Improve the healthy development, health, safety, and well-being of adolescents and young adults” (US Department of Health and Human Services [US DHHS], 2013).
Make up 21% of the population (US DHHS, 2013)
Behavior patterns developed during this developmental period influences health status and risks (US DHHS, 2013)
Motor vehicle crashes are listed as a public health and social problem (US DHHS, 2013)
Adolescents are susceptible to environmental and social influences (US DHHS, 2013)
Adolescents make up 21% of the population (US DHHS, 2013). The behavior patterns developed during the adolescent developmental stage influences overall health status and risks. Motor vehicle crashes by adolescent drivers are listed as a public health and social problem. The US DHHS (2013), suggests that this is due to adolescents being more susceptible to environmental and social influences.

21. Healthy People 2020: Injuries and violence prevention
Goal:
“Prevent unintentional injuries and violence, and reduce their consequences” (US DHHS, 2013).
Events resulting in injury, disability and death are predictable and preventable (US DHHS, 2013)
Choices such as risk taking (texting while driving) increase injuries (US DHHS, 2013)
Social environment influences risk for injury (US DHHS, 2013)
Motor vehicle crashes related to distracted driving is an emerging issue (US DHHS, 2013)
This goal focuses on preventing injury and violence. The prevalence of events resulting in injury, disability or death are predictable and preventable events based on individual choices. These choices include risk taking behaviors, such as, texting while driving. The social environment also influence risk for injury. This includes individual social experiences (social norms), social relationships (parental monitoring), community environment (cohesion in schools) and societal-level factors (attitudes, laws and regulations) (US DHHS, 2013). Although, motor vehicle crashes are not an objective at this point, it is an emerging issue for Healthy people 2020 initiatives (US DHHS, 2013).

22. Healthy people 2020: social determinants of health
Goal:
“Create social and physical environments that promote good health for all” (US DHHS, 2013).
“Conditions in the environments in which people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks” (US DHHS, 2013).
Education
Public safety
Social determinants of health influence decisions people make and risks they may take. Providing education and promoting public safety can reduce the risks associated with distracted driving.

23. references
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC]. (2013, May 23). Distracted driving. Retrieved from Community Tool Box. (2013). A model for getting started. Retrieved from Hoff, J., Grell, J., Lohrman, N., Stehly, C., Stoltzfus, J., Wainwright, G., & Hoff, W. (2013). Distracted driving and implications for injury prevention in adults. Journal of Trauma Nursing, 20(1), doi /JTN.0b013e c. Madden, M., & Lenhart, A. (Eds.). (2009). Teens and distracted driving: Texting, talking and other uses of the cell phone behind the wheel. Pew Research Institute. Retrieved from

24. References
O’Brien, N., Goodwin, A., & Foss, R. D. (2010). Talking and texting among teenage drivers: A glass half empty or half full? Traffic Injury Prevention, 11, doi Pender, N., Murdaugh, C., & Parsons, M. A. (2011). Health promotion in nursing practice. (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Thompson, R. (2010). What’s really hurting our kids? The school nurse role in preventing teen vehicle fatalities. NASN School Nurse, 25(4), doi / X US Department of Health and Human Services [US DHHS]. (August, 2013). Healthy People Retrieved March 25, Retrieved from