Trauma Life Support

Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS)

This highly interactive course, combines lectures, discussions, interactive tutorials, skills teaching and simulated patient management scenarios (moulage). Participants complete a pre-course MCQ and are assessed throughout the course.

The programme provides systematic and concise training for the early care of trauma patients. Recommended during first or second year of specialist training. ST1-2. This course was developed and quality assured by The Royal College of Surgeons of England, for delivery within the UK.

Course Format

ATLS is a highly interactive course, taught using a variety of practical techniques including simulated patient scenarios, unfolding scenario stations and group discussion

You will receive continual feedback and assessment throughout the course.

Before the course, you will be required to complete the pre-course online learning consisting of an Overview chapter, ATLS student course manual, 13 modules and quizzes, pre and post module MCQs and it takes approximately 1-2 hrs to complete each module (this could take you 26+ hours). Full completion of the pre-course learning is a mandatory requirement to attend the course.

Delegates who have not completed the eLearning in full by 7am on the day before the course will not be allowed to participate in the course and will forfeit their course fee. Course participants are also required to read the ATLS course manual in full to prepare for the assessments on the course. 

Course participants will receive access to pre-course learning resources on the RCS VLE via a notification with log in details six weeks before the course.

Course Objectives

This program provides systemic and concise training for the early care of trauma patients. The ATLS program provides participants with a safe, reliable method for immediate management of the injured patient and the basic knowledge necessary to:

• Assess the patient’s condition rapidly and accurately;

• Resuscitate and stabilize the patient according to priority;

• Determine if the patient’s needs exceed a facility’s capacity;

• Arrange appropriately for the patient’s inter-hospital transfer (who, what, when, and how);

• Assure that optimum care is provided and that the level of care does not deteriorate at any point during the evaluation, resuscitation, or transfer process.

Learning Outcomes

After attending this course, you should be able to:

• Demonstrate the concepts and principles of the primary and secondary patient assessments.

• Establish management priorities in a trauma situation

• Initiate primary and secondary management necessary for the emergency management of acute life threatening conditions in a timely manner

• In a given simulation, demonstrate the skills related to ABCD which are often required during initial assessment and treatment of patients with multiple injuries