How to Stop the Bleed: First Care Provider Model for Developing Public Trauma Response Beyond Basic Hemorrhage...

Area of Science:

• Emergency Medicine
• Public Health Preparedness
• Trauma Response Training

Background:

• The First Care Provider (FCP) model has trained civilians in life-threatening injury interventions since 2013.
• Current public training, like "Stop The Bleed," focuses on hemorrhage control.
• Disaster response necessitates recognizing injuries, ensuring access to victims, and rapid evacuation, in addition to hemorrhage control.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a reproducible community training model for disaster response.
• To assess the effectiveness of the FCP curriculum in a simulated mass casualty event.
• To compare the response times of trained and untrained civilian groups.

Main Methods:

• A reproducible community training model was developed for prehospital systems.
• Two demographic groups were selected: one trained in the FCP curriculum and one untrained.
• Both groups participated in a simulated mass casualty event involving arterial bleeding and airway obstruction.

Main Results:

• Trained individuals demonstrated significantly faster times to the first action (T1A) and time to solution (TtS) in both arterial bleed and airway obstruction simulations.
• Response times for the trained group closely mirrored those of emergency medical services (EMS).
• Statistical analysis confirmed that the observed differences were not due to chance (p-values < 0.1064 for T1A, < 0.0014 for arterial bleed TtS, and < 0.0087 for airway obstruction TtS).

Conclusions:

• The FCP training model is an effective method for improving civilian response to trauma in disaster settings.
• This model aligns with "Stop The Bleed" objectives while enhancing overall public disaster preparedness.
• The study offers a validated approach to community disaster response training.