Effectiveness of the Primary Trauma Care Course: Is the outcome satisfactory?

To assess the improvement of knowledge and skills of trauma management among participant of Primary Trauma Care (PTC) workshop.

A two days Primary Trauma Care (PTC) provider workshop was organized at Dow International Medical College, Karachi - Pakistan on March 5(th) and 6th 2011. Participant's knowledge was assessed by 30 Best Choice Questions (BCQs) and their trauma management skills were assessed by management of trauma case scenario both at pre and post workshop. All scenarios performed by participants were video recorded and marked on a 20 points check list and evaluated by two PTC trainers and graded after consensus. Percentage of participants who scored more than 70% marks on knowledge and skills component were also analyzed. Data was analyzed by SPSS version 17. Wilcoxon Sign Rank test was used to find out significant difference between pre and post workshop score.

A total of 20 participants attended the full workshop. Median One best question score before the workshop was 19.5 and post workshop was 25 (p<0.0001). Trauma skills scenario score also showed marked improvement with median score of 3.5 pre workshop and 9.5 post workshop (p<0.0001). Total 19 participants had ≥70% post workshop knowledge score. However, only 4 participants had trauma skill score with ≥70 marks.

Primary Trauma Care workshop could be an effective course for gaining of knowledge and skills of initial management of trauma patients. However, some modifications need to be done for training of skills components to maximize the output of this interactive workshop.