References
Trauma education and training for healthcare providers: a scoping review
Abstract
Background:
Every six seconds, someone in the world dies because of injury. Trauma is a major public health problem and leads to significant mortality and morbidity worldwide. Healthcare provider training can affect patient outcomes; therefore, it is useful to examine the efficacy of trauma training programmes. This scoping review aimed to determine the impact of trauma training or education on healthcare providers' confidence.
Method:
Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid Embase, Ovid Emcare, CINAHL, Scopus, Google Scholar and Trove were systematically searched on 7 August 2021, and a methodology adopted to ensure the scoping review was comprehensive.
Results:
A total of 749 articles were retrieved, of which 15 were eligible for the scoping review. After the articles were analysed, two themes—knowledge and experience—were identified. Knowledge improved from attending courses. However, knowledge retention fell over time. Participants reported that their confidence improved after attending courses, but an inverted correlation was observed between experience and knowledge.
Conclusion:
Trauma training courses improve the confidence of healthcare providers. However, these courses should be conducted regularly and trainees observed to assess their confidence. Further studies should be conducted to evaluate the effect of these courses on practitioner confidence.
Trauma is a major public health issue and accounts for a significant portion of global morbidity and mortality. Worldwide, injury causes a death every 6 seconds (World Health Organization, 2014). Approximately 9% of the world's population dies because of injury, with more than five million deaths from injury recorded annually, 1.2 million of these in young people. In the United States, injury was the fourth leading cause of death in 2015 and, by 2017, was ranked third (Heron, 2017). In the UK, trauma is the leading cause of death in people aged ≤49 years (Office for National Statistics, 2018).
Fortunately, improvements in the components of the care system for trauma patients, including trauma prevention, out-of-hospital care and acute and post-trauma care, have reduced mortality and morbidity in patients with trauma injuries (Celso et al, 2006). However, there are concerns that trauma education is not improving as rapidly as other components in care system (Jayaraman and Sethi, 2010; Jayaraman et al, 2014).
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