Rural Trauma Team Development Course

The maturation of Iowa's Trauma System heralds an exciting new sophistication in the assessment, treatment and transport of those injured within Iowa. The Emergency Department physician will be a critical component within the system; guiding the prehospital response, leading the hospital-based care and coordinating surgical intervention and transfer if necessary.

With these important new responsibilities there comes a concurrent obligation to learn and abide by the standards of the system. Prominent among the obligations is a provision of the rules stating that current Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) is required of all Emergency Department physicians by January 1, 2004.

The Rural Trauma Team Development Course, hereafter known as RTTDC, has been developed by the Rural Trauma Subcommittee of the Committee on Trauma, American College of Surgeons to help rural hospitals with development of their trauma teams. It is hoped that the course will improve the quality of care in their community by developing a timely, organized, rational response to the care of the trauma patient and a team approach that addresses the common problems in the initial assessment and stabilization of the injured.

The basic premise of the course is the assumption that, in most situations, rural hospitals can provide three individuals to form the core of a trauma team consisting of a Team Leader - physician or physician extender, Team Member One - a nurse and Team Member Two - an additional individual who could be a nurse, aide, technician, prehospital provider or clerk. Therefore, the rural hospital should have those individuals such as respiratory, radiology and laboratory technicians, additional nurses, prehospital personnel, etc. who might be involved in supportive roles to the trauma team.

The course is designed to be given either in one day of approximately 8 hours or can be given in four separate modules of 1.5 - 2 hours each or combination of modules. The rural hospital, in conjunction with the presenting instruction team, will decide how the course is to be presented. RTTDC is taught by Surgeons, Emergency Physicians and Nurses who are experienced trauma care providers and trauma course instructors. The American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma Chairperson for your state, or his/her designee, is responsible for the selection of the RTTDC Instructor teams and the quality management of the courses.

While ATLS remains the required standard for Trauma System compliance, there are other courses emerging that hold promise in providing educational support for rural and non-urban ED practices. Of particular interest is the American College of Surgeons' Rural Trauma Team Development Course. We have excerpted information about this exciting new offering below. If you would like additional information, please call our office at 800.729.7813 or e-mail us at paulh@acutecare.com and we will send you a document containing a more extensive overview.

NEW! We've added an online version of a RTTDC PowerPoint presentation, accessible via this link.

Learn more about the Iowa Trauma System