Advanced Trauma Life Support Course Delivery: Comparison of Outcomes From Modifications During Covid-19

Introduction The Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) Course is a two-day long medical training course developed by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) to help train and prepare healthcare providers to care for severely injured patients. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in the modification or cancellation of many education programs across the world. At the University of South Florida’s Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation (CAMLS) two different models of ATLS were delivered in response to the COVID-19 pandemic with both models utilizing the ACS’s online mobile ATLS (mATLS). In this study three different models of ATLS delivered by USF CAMLS between 2019 and 2020 were compared to determine if there were any impacts on the education and functionality of the ATLS course between the three different models of ATLS: a baseline ATLS course, an augmented ATLS course that used mATLS, and an ATLS course that used mATLS as a replacement for in-person lectures. Material and methods To compare the three models of ATLS delivery, a total of six ATLS courses were studied: a baseline face-to-face ATLS course from June 2019, two Mobile ATLS (mATLS) courses from September 2020, and three augmented ATLS courses that contained both face-to-face and mATLS delivery from October, November and December 2020. The only differences between the traditional ATLS courses from 2020 and the pre-COVID ATLS course from 2019 were that the courses from 2020 utilized mATLS and that the course days were longer due to cleaning time. These courses were selected to have a non-significant difference in the number of learners in each model of ATLS course. The data that were collected from these courses included: post-test results from learners, learner feedback surveys, and interviews with the ATLS Course Director, ATLS Course Coordinator, and the Educational Coordinator. Results The only courses with significant differences in the post-test mean scores were for the baseline ATLS course compared to the mATLS courses. The augmented courses showed similar post-test performance to the mATLS courses. Students viewed the courses favorably with the only major complaint between the 2019 and the 2020 courses being a high amount of downtime for the 2020 courses due to time required to disinfect skill stations and equipment. The main difficulties for the ATLS Course Director, ATLS Course Coordinator, and the Educational Coordinator with the ATLS courses in 2020 were concerned with challenges from COVID-19, like social distancing, and not with mATLS or the shortened instruction time with the hybrid model. Discussion This preliminary study analyzed three delivery models of ATLS. The mATLS may be able to replace in-person lectures of ATLS courses as courses using alternative delivery formats showed post-test scores as good or better than the baseline face-to-face course.