Assessment and treatment of trauma (ATT) is a brand new international continuing education course from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) that represents the state-of-the-art in prehospital trauma assessment and management. Based on the most current medical information and best practices, this concise and highly interactive continuing education course covers the critical knowledge and skills necessary to rapidly evaluate, stabilize, and transport the trauma patient. The:
Concise, highly interactive, and expeditious
Learn at your own place, at your own pace with the 2–6 hour online pre-course module which reviews essential information related to each type of injury. The on-site portion, presented in a convenient 1-day format, expands on the information presented in the textbook through lectures and hands-on scenario-based, small-group discussions and live-action videos.
An accredited course
ATT is accredited by the Continuing Education Coordinating Board for Emergency Medical Services (CECBEMS). Following the successful completion of an ATT course, participants are eligible to receive CECBEMS credit as well as a course completion certificate. In Australia, the ATT course has been accredited by the Australian College of Emergency Medicine for CPD 14 units.
ATT course description
The basic course is geared toward the emergency medical responder (first responder) and emergency medical technician (EMT-Basic), whereas the advanced course is geared toward the advanced emergency medical technician (EMT-Intermediate), paramedic, and other advanced life support providers. The basic course is designed to cover trauma concepts from the basic life support provider's level of training (anatomy and physiology and the pathophysiology of injury), whereas the advanced course builds upon the basic concepts and provides a more in-depth look into trauma and advanced management.
Precourse online module
The precourse online module is designed to guide the participant through the core trauma concepts. It will ensure that the participant has the required prerequisite knowledge to be successful in the 1-day on-site module.
Participants are required to successfully complete the 2–6 hour precourse online module before attending the on-site module. Upon successful completion, participants are asked to print a completion certificate to present to the course coordinator of the on-site module. We recommend at least 6 hours as we have noted that the minimal time has been unachievable even for EMS trained personnel. The pre-course online module contains 12 specialized lessons, including:
At the completion of the 12 specialized lessons, participants take an examination to test their retention of the material presented. Participants must receive a minimum of 80% on the examination in order to move onto the on-site module. It will take approximately 2–6 hours to complete the pre-course online module. Participants do not have to complete the pre-course online module in one sitting, they can leave and come back at any time. Participants will have a total of 180 days to complete the precourse online module from the day they log on.
On-site module
The on-site module consists of four components:
The lectures are designed for presentation to the entire group by one faculty member. On the ToolKit CD-ROM, there is a lecture folder. Inside the folder are ready-to-use basic and advanced PowerPoint lecture presentations. Each lecture is designed to be presented in 30 minutes. The basic course lectures are as follows:
The advanced course lectures are as follows:
Scenarios
The scenarios are designed to promote learning through small group discussion centred on a trauma case. Ideally, these small groups will comprize four to eight students per faculty member. Each scenario consists of three unique cases designed to cover multiple aspects of the topic.
The ATT scenarios play an important role in helping students apply information from all aspects of the course. The faculty presents a scenario, and the students must work through the case as a team, requesting additional information from the faculty. The basic course scenarios are as follows:
The advanced course scenarios are as follows:
Skill stations
The skill station format is designed to serve two purposes. The case-based ATT skill stations create a critical-thinking situation for participants and provide a forum for demonstrating and teaching hands-on skills and allowing participants to practice these skills under the faculty's supervision. The skill stations are designed to have a 8:1 participant-to-faculty ratio (or ratio set by the local continuing education accreditation agency).
The skill station teaching materials are the same for the basic and advanced courses. Faculty will require participants to complete the simulated trauma case to their level of training and according to local protocols. The skill stations are as follows:
Completion
The ATT course is a continuing education course that is designed to provide continued trauma education beyond the participant's initial certification; it does not certify or license participants.
Participants who successfully complete either the basic or advanced ATT course qualify to receive an ATT Course completion certificate as well as AREMT CPD credit completion certificates. To qualify to receive this certificate, the participant must:
Teaching the ATT course
The ATT course helps prehospital professionals learn and assimilate the fundamental knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are necessary for assessing and treating the trauma patient. The ATT course is especially tailored to meet the needs of out-of-hospital personnel who often have to make quick decisions about the care and destination of trauma patients in the field, many times without immediate medical direction.
Learning is the process of assimilating new knowledge, insights, and skills; the purpose of instruction is to facilitate this process. Instructors can affect learning directly by their organization and presentation of educational materials and indirectly through their attitudes toward learners, toward the subject matter, and toward the educational process itself. The interaction between instructor and learner also is affected by the beliefs, values, needs, attitudes, and self-concepts of both individuals.
The ATT course is intended to address the special needs of adult learners who bring much life experience to the course. The instructional designs and techniques for this course are varied to meet the needs of participants with diverse learning styles. The highly interactive format for the sessions is designed to enhance the self-efficacy (the belief in one's ability to perform tasks successfully) of participants by allowing immediate feedback, opportunities to observe other participants performing the tasks, and sufficient individual practice for skill acquisition.
Faculty responsibilities
When teaching the ATT course, trainees will be encouraged to learn while respecting each individual's needs and abilities. It also helps to be aware of adult learning principles. Adult learning can be divided into three major domains: cognitive (ways of thinking), affective (ways of feeling), and psychomotor (ways of doing).
The ATT course is designed to teach trauma knowledge, attitudes, and skills in the most effective format for each domain. Adult learners usually are able to identify areas of weakness and seek appropriate methods to obtain skills and information. When the opportunity for learning is presented, as in this ATT Course, the information acquired is integrated into current knowledge and used by the adult learner to ensure complete assimilation and retention. The task in teaching the ATT course will include helping participants to learn the content of the course and also providing them with some learning strategies so that they can remember what they have learned.
Course format
The three main features of the ATT on-site module are the lectures, scenarios, and skill stations. The instructor's role in facilitating learning requires attention to the interaction between the characteristics of adult learners and the educational design. This course includes several formats to facilitate learning for professionals who have considerable expertise in their own fields and want to expand their knowledge base and improve their skills in caring for the trauma patient.
Lectures
ATT course lectures are used to convey a broad overview of the issues and give specific information (cognitive domain) to the learner. In this learning format, the instructor provides information and is in control of what and how much is taught—there is often little interaction between the instructor and the learner. The effectiveness of the ATT lecture format is limited by the attention span (usually less than an hour) of learners.
Scenarios
The ATT scenarios encourage interaction between faculty and learners. This is an ideal opportunity for participants to share their own experiences, to ask questions about the issues, and to voice their concerns. Learners can be assisted in relating the ATT Course information to their own experiences. When participants describe problem situations, for instance, you can help them to make connections to the material.
Skill stations
Skill stations provide specific skill learning and hands-on experience. The emphasis in the skill stations is on learner participation with supervision by faculty.
Self-efficacy
The purpose of the ATT course is to help participants increase their confidence in their knowledge and skills (self-efficacy) in caring for the trauma patient, as such the ATT course is important to create a positive learning climate and to be attentive to ATT students' needs.
Conclusion
The ATT course is designed for all participants to leave with well-integrated knowledge, skills, and selfefficacy that will enable them to perform effectively in the field under basic and extreme trauma conditions, hence noting that a good prehospital care knowledge prior to attending the ATT course is highly recommended. As prehospital care trauma skills are nominally taught in EMT programmes, the experience gained by completing an intensive trauma course can be seen in the results that prehospital care trained EMS students are/have achieved in applying and managing trauma situations post-course completion. Results show that EMTs have achieved a much higher level of awareness in coping with traumatic field situations, to the extent of being able to act as a trauma team leader.
As it is important for all prehospital care practitioners to be cognizant of a variety of traumatic conditions they may face in their course of care, the current trauma training that is included at lower levels of prehospital care i.e. EMT-B, FPOS, is nominal in contrast to the indepth trauma topics defined in the AAOS ATT course. As there are many independent prehospital care practitioners, it is vitally important that we can ensure that the prehospital care community are able to operate in a wide range of traumatic conditions, be able to assess, manage and coordinate trauma based incidents.
This information is supplied from American Academy Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS)/ Assessment and Treatment of Trauma (ATT) programme details with additional comments/recommendations added by the Australasian Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians (AREMT). For more information, please feel free to email: admin@aremt.com.au