Effect of Advanced Trauma Life Support program on medical interns' performance in simulated trauma patient management

Objective: Since appropriate and timetable methods in trauma care have an important impact on patients' outcome, we evaluated the effect of Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) program on medical interns' performance in simulated trauma patient management. Methods: A descriptive and analytical study before and after the training was conducted on 24 randomly selected undergraduate medical interns from Imam Reza Hospital in Mashhad, Iran. On the first day, we assessed interns' clinical knowledge and their practical skill performance in confronting simulated trauma patients. After 2 days of ATLS training, we performed the same study and evaluated their score again on the fourth day. The two findings, pre- and post-ATLS periods, were compared through SPSS version 15.0 software. P values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: Our findings showed that interns' ability in all the three tasks improved after the training course. On the fourth day after training, there was a statistically significant increase in interns' clinical knowledge of ATLS procedures, the sequence of procedures and skill performance in trauma situations (P<0.001, P=0.016 and P=0.01 respectively). Conclusion: ATLS course has an important role in increasing clinical knowledge and practical skill performance of trauma care in medical interns.