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BACKGROUND: Trauma courses have been shown to improve clinical knowledge and patient outcomes. However, little is known about the individual drivers of change in practice amongst course participants in their home clinic environment. METHODS: Front-line healthcare workers participated in a two-day Primary Trauma Care (PTC) course. Immediately after the course participants completed an evaluation survey on intended change in the management of trauma patients. Six months after the course, participants completed a survey on actual changes that had occurred. RESULTS: A total of 451 participants were sampled, with 321 responding at 6 months, from 40 courses across East, Central and Southern Africa. The most commonly reported intended change was the adoption of an ABCDE/systematic approach (53%). Six months after the course, 92.7% of respondents reported that they had made changes in their management, with adoption of an ABCDE/systematic approach (50.0%) remaining most common. 77% of participants reported an improvement in departmental trauma management, 26% reported an increase in staffing, 29% an increase in equipment and 68% of participants had gone on to train other healthcare workers in PTC. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that PTC courses not only improve individual management of trauma patients but also but is also associated with beneficial effects for participants' host institutions with regards to staffing, equipment and training.

Original publication

DOI

10.1016/j.injury.2017.06.007

Type

Journal article

Journal

Injury

Publication Date

09/2017

Volume

48

Pages

2010 - 2016

Keywords

ATLS, Africa, COSECSA, Courses, Injury, Primary Trauma Care, Training, Trauma, Africa, Attitude of Health Personnel, Clinical Competence, Education, Medical, Continuing, Evaluation Studies as Topic, Health Personnel, Health Resources, Humans, Program Development, Quality Improvement, Quality of Health Care, Traumatology