Succeeding in Continuing Trauma Education During a Pandemic

BACKGROUND: Corona virus disease 2019 (Covid-19) impacted continuing medical education programs such as the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) course. Modifications made to medical training like teleconferencing could affect students’ learning success. We sought to evaluate the effects of the American College of Surgeons modifications on success rates in passing the ATLS course. METHODS: This study evaluated 28 ATLS 10th edition courses educating 898 students at our region before and after Covid-19 modifications. Traditional two-day courses were performed in-person while modified courses were conducted with a one-day teleconference followed by a second in-person practical day. We compared the characteristics and course pass rates between the traditional and modified ATLS courses. RESULTS: Modified ATLS courses had significantly lower pass rates (81.0%; 95% confidence interval = [74.8–87.3]) compared to traditional ATLS courses (94.3%; [92.2–96.3]). CONCLUSIONS: Modifications to the ATLS course are associated with lower student pass. This is possibly due to ineffective knowledge consolidation. Better modifications to the course are required such as use of electronic learning tools with modification to course schedule or returning to the traditional course but with the use of Covid-19 vaccines and other protective measures. These suggestions should be considered and evaluated further by ATLS program leaders.