Introduction

The advent of Trauma systems in the late 1970s occurred initially in the USA where the American College of Surgeons introduced the ATLS (Advanced Trauma Life Support) course as a response to an incident where a first response to a landmark multiple casualty incident was found to be sorely lacking (1). That course and its offspring such as the EMST (Emergency Management of Severe Trauma) course of the Australasian College of Surgeons are offered to Providers of Trauma care.

This course is intended for doctors and other healthcare providers who may incidentally or peripherally be involved (as members of an ad hoc resuscitation team) and is to provide a working knowledge for them so they are cognisant of the process being used. It is not intended for those who will be regularly providing or who may be expect to lead any such care and the courses above are strongly recommended, along with further formal clinical training. 

For simplicity the format of such systems follows that of Cardiac Life Support Systems (the ABC mnemonic) and in the past has been based mostly on expert opinion. Some concepts that were introduced such as “The Golden Hour” (2) have come to be re- examined as trauma systems move towards more evidence based recommendations. The evidence base for the most recent ATLS recommendations was listed in 2008 (3).

Our course should not be regarded as prescriptive and it should be observed that local variations on such systems occur and are often related to both differences in demographics such as age or incidence or type of trauma eg penetrating vs blunt and to the resources available.

Evaluation and Course Certification

There will be demonstration and practice of skills during the morning of the course. Evaluation of whether you have a working knowledge of each skill will be done at this  point and limited further time for practice may be available during lunch break.

During the afternoon each group of 4 doctors plus one nurse will rotate through four scenarios and rotate positions in the team. An assessment will be made of each doctor in each role considering competence and teamwork.

Please note you will not receive course certification unless you attend the whole day: from 0800 to 1730 unless the course finishes earlier. A timetable is included in the pre-reading.

Pre-course Preparation

1. Read the Trauma Workshop Guide
2. Read Trauma Care Pre-Hospital Manual sent to you
3. Pre-course scenario practice
4. Pre course test online to complete before the workshop. This is formative and not part of the final assessment.
5. Practical skills preparation: view “how-to”videos for which links are provided in the Course Objectives below. It will not be necessary to know these by heart but it is important that you should be familiar with the system and understand each of the skills prior to the workshop.
6. You will be asked to use ISBAR as a structured communication method with other medical services. https://www.slideshare.net/aifl/isbar-a-better-way-to-communicate 
7. Read Participant Briefing page
8. Submit Confidentiality Agreement Online Form