Improving trauma care in India: a recommendation for the implementation of ATLS training for emergency department medical officers

BACKGROUND: Trauma is major cause of morbidity and mortality in India. The Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) programme teaches a standardised method for the initial assessment and management of trauma patients, and has been adopted by more than 50 countries worldwide. AIM: We sought to assess the theoretical knowledge of ATLS principles among emergency department (ED) medical officers (MOs) in Salem, Tamil Nadu, India, and from the Royal Adelaide Hospital, Adelaide, South Australia. METHODS: All MOs answered a trauma management quiz based on ATLS-type questions. Quiz scores were compared between senior and junior MO groups for each country, and within each professional group between countries. Categorical data were analysed using χ(2). An α value less than 0.05 was deemed to be statistically significant. RESULTS: We discovered significant differences in the theoretical knowledge of ED MOs from Salem compared with colleagues in Adelaide. Our results demonstrated the positive influence of completion of an ATLS programme upon obtaining a passing grade on the trauma quiz. We failed to determine a link between self-rated experience in trauma management and the ability to pass the quiz. CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrated the positive influence of completion of an ATLS-type programme on the score obtained on the trauma management quiz. Although previous work has demonstrated mixed results concerning improvement in the care of trauma patients following completion of an ATLS programme, we recommend that such programmes be integrated into the training of Indian ED MOs and suggest that ATLS should be viewed as an integral part of medical training.