Assessing the impact of an emergency trauma course for senior medical students in Kenya

INTRODUCTION: Ninety percent of all injury-related deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. The WHO recommends short, resource-specific trauma courses for healthcare providers. Studies show that teaching trauma courses to medical students in developed countries leads to significant increases in knowledge and skill. High costs hinder widespread and sustained teaching of these courses in low-income countries. METHODS: A two-day trauma course was designed for students at Moi College of Health Sciences in Eldoret, Kenya. Participants underwent pre- and post-course written and simulation testing and rated their confidence in 21 clinical scenarios and 15 procedures pre- and post-course using a five point Likert scale. A subset of the students was re-evaluated nine months post-course. Using the paired t-test, mean written, simulation and confidence scores were compared pre-course, immediately post-course and nine months post-course. RESULTS: Twenty-two students were enrolled. Written test score means were 61.5% pre-course and 76.9% post-course, mean difference 15.5% (p < 0.001). Simulation test score means were 36.7% pre-course and 82.2% post-course, mean difference 45.5% (p < 0.001). Aggregate confidence scores were 3.21 pre-course and 4.72 post-course (scale 1–5). Ten out of 22 (45.5%) students were re-evaluated nine months post-course. Results showed written test score mean of 75%, simulation score mean of 61.7%, and aggregate confidence score of 4.59 (scale 1–5). Mean differences between immediate post- and nine months post-course were 1.6% (p = 0.75) and 8.7% (p = 0.10) for the written and simulation tests, respectively. CONCLUSION: Senior Kenyan medical students demonstrated statistically significant increases in knowledge, skills and confidence after participating in a novel student trauma course. Nine months post-course, improvements in knowledge skills and confidence were sustained.