The content and skills presented in this course are designed to assist clinicians in providing emergency care for trauma patients. Though the concept of the golden hour is not a fixed period of 60 minutes, it emphasizes the urgency necessary for successful treatment of injured patients. This concept symbolizes the positive impact of rapid assessment and proper management on the morbidity and mortality associated with injury. The ATLS® course provides the essential information and skills for clinicians to identify and treat life-threatening and potentially life-threatening injuries under the extreme intellectual and emotional pressures associated with the care of these patients. The ATLS Course is applicable to clinicians in a variety of situations. The ATLS Course supplies its learners with a safe and reliable method for the immediate treatment of injured patients and the basic knowledge necessary to:
• Assess a patient’s condition rapidly and accurately.
• Resuscitate and stabilize patients according to priority.
• Determine whether the specific management needs of a patient exceed the resources of a facility and/or the capability of a clinician.
• Arrange appropriately for a patient’s interhospital or intrahospital transfer.
• Ensure that optimal care is continually provided, and the level of care does not deteriorate at any point during evaluation, resuscitation, or transfer.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
Upon completing the ATLS Course, the participant will be able to:
• Practice the concepts and principles of initial assessment through the primary and secondary patient surveys.
• Establish management priorities in a simulated trauma situation.
• Initiate primary and secondary management necessary for the emergency management of acute life-threatening conditions in a simulated patient.
• Apply the key principles of effective team function and communication in a simulated trauma scenario.
• Practice primary and secondary initial assessment surveys of a patient with simulated injuries.
• Perform control of simulated life-threatening external hemorrhage.
• Evaluate and manage airway patency and initiate assisted ventilation in a simulated trauma patient.
• Demonstrate the procedure of surgical/incisional airway.
• Identify clinical and radiographic signs of thoracic injuries.
• Describe the steps for a needle or finger thoracostomy and chest tube insertion for pleural decompression in a simulated scenario.
• Assess and treat a simulated patient in shock with recognition of life-threatening hemorrhage.
• Perform intraosseous access in a simulated patient.
• Apply an external pelvic compression device for hemorrhage due to pelvic fracture in a simulated trauma patient.
• Evaluate the abdomen for hemorrhage with either peritoneal lavage or ultrasound (FAST).
• Evaluate and treat a simulated patient with brain injury, including use of the Glasgow Coma Scale score.
• Demonstrate protection of the spinal cord and radiographic and clinical evaluation of spine injuries in a simulated trauma scenario.
• Perform musculoskeletal trauma assessment and management in a simulated scenario.
• Apply the principles of trauma assessment of simulated older adults, pediatric patients, and pregnant patients.
COURSE SCHEDULE – 1-day refresher course
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Registration and Breakfast
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Welcome and Course Overview
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Pretest Review
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Skills Station Rotations:
• Airway
• Breathing
• Circulation
• Triage
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Lunch
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Written Assessment
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Patient Assessment Scenarios
