Succeeding in Continuing Trauma Education During a Pandemic

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Trauma Care Training
• Public Health Emergencies

Background:

• The Covid-19 pandemic significantly disrupted continuing medical education, including the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) course.
• Modifications such as teleconferencing were implemented, raising concerns about their impact on student learning outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effect of American College of Surgeons modifications on ATLS course success rates.
• To compare pass rates between traditional in-person and modified ATLS courses.

Main Methods:

• A comparative study of 28 ATLS 10th edition courses involving 898 students.
• Courses were categorized as traditional (two-day, in-person) or modified (one-day teleconference + one-day in-person).
• Student pass rates were analyzed between the two course formats.

Main Results:

• Modified ATLS courses demonstrated significantly lower pass rates (81.0%) compared to traditional courses (94.3%).
• The confidence intervals for pass rates were [74.8-87.3]% for modified and [92.2-96.3]% for traditional courses.

Conclusions:

• Modifications to the ATLS course format are associated with reduced student pass rates.
• Potential reasons include ineffective knowledge consolidation; improved modifications or return to traditional methods with safety protocols are suggested.
• Further evaluation by ATLS program leaders is recommended for proposed modifications.