The Trauma Evaluation and Management (TEAM) teaching module: its role for senior medical students in Canada

The objective of this study was to report on the role of the Trauma Evaluation and Management (TEAM) module devised by the American College of Surgeons in the trauma education of senior medical students.

Twenty-nine medical students who completed their surgical clerkship at the University of Toronto were randomly divided into 2 groups: a control and a TEAM group. All students completed a 20-item multiple-choice questionnaire (MCQ) pre-test. The TEAM group(15 students) took a post-test after completing the TEAM program and the control group (14 students) took the same "post-test" without completing the TEAM program. Students in the control groupdid complete the TEAM program after taking the post-test, allowing all 29 students to complete a post-module evaluation questionnaire. Paired t-tests were used for within group comparisons and unpaired t-tests for between group comparisons. The results of the evaluation questionnaire were analyzed according to the percentage of response in each of 5 categories of 1 - strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree, as well as according to the median, range and 95% confidence intervals.

The students had similar mean (+/- standard deviation) scores on the MCQ pre-test (TEAM 46.3 [5.5], control 47.5 [9.9]), but the TEAM group showed a significant (p < 0. 05) improvement in their scores after they completed the TEAM program (TEAM 80.7 [11.5], control 44.6 [6.3]). Eight of the 15 students in the TEAM group reached the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) pass mark of 80%, whereas none in the control group achieved this mark. With respect to the evaluation questionnaire, a score of 4 or greater was assigned by 100% of the students when asked if the objectives were met, 100% when asked if trauma knowledge was improved, 62% when asked whether clinical trauma skills were improved, 100% for overall satisfaction and 100% in recommending that the module be made mandatory in the undergraduate curriculum.

This study demonstrates the teaching effectiveness of the TEAM module. It also was very well accepted by the senior medical students who unanimously indicated that this module should be mandatory in the undergraduate medical curriculum.