Advanced Trauma Life Support instructor training in the UK: an evaluation

Abstract

SummaryThe paper reports on a questionnaire evaluation of the UK-based ATLS (Advanced Trauma Life Support) instructor course. The trainee instructors who responded were mainly at consultant grade with some senior registrars. The course was regarded as being very effective in achieving most of its objectives and in raising the confidence of postgraduate medical instructors, especially those lacking previous training in instructional methods. This is particularly so for practical skills training. The least effective areas of the course concern small group teaching and questioning techniques. The ATLS provider course is aimed at those physicians who need the knowledge and skills of ATLS in order to perform their duties on a daily basis. The ATLS instructor course is designed to provide approved instructors who can act as teaching faculty on ATLS provider courses. This instructor course is the focus of the present study.The programme of course provision is now an approved aspect of postgraduate medical training in the UK. This growth is partly in acknowledgement of the effectiveness of the ATLS procedures in trauma care and the general recognition among all specialists involved in trauma care that an ATLS qualification is desirable for career progression. There is a wealth of published evidence to show that ATLS courses bring about an improvement in trauma care. Several authors have reported the positive outcomes of ATLS training.2-More recently, initiatives in postgraduate medical education in the UK have meant that all hospital trust practitioners who also undertake teaching and training duties must have formal training in teaching methods. The ATLS instructor course seems to be in a good position to fulfil one element of such a requirement.With these issues in mind and thinking especially of the rapid growth of ATLS course pro- The respondents' rating of the ATLS instruction was much higher than that given to any previous training, regardless of the degree of previous teaching experience. What was rather surprising was the low rating given by such senior practitioners to their previous training experiences.A similar seven-point scale was used to assess the confidence of the respondents as trainers, both before and after the ATLS instructor course.

Flipped classroom approach for trauma education: Attitudes of participants towards pre-course assignments before the advanced trauma life supports (ATLS) instructor course

“…A questionnaire evaluation of Instructor Course participants has shown increased confidence not only during teaching in ATLS Courses but also in any medical education circumstance after the course. 7 ATLS is one of the few life supports training programs which has a faculty development program in-built into its mission to combat trauma. 8,9 In this context significant consensus exists on the fact that faceto face lectures cannot be replaced by online lectures.…”

Can performance indicators be used for pedagogic purposes in disaster medicine training?

“…Although the need to provide training for faculty development to improve the teaching skills of instructors is increasingly recognized in many medical areas [ 16 ], their impact has not yet been established. To the extent of our knowledge, there are some studies concerning the usefulness of instructor training in the trauma care education course [ 17 , 18 ]; however, no study has evaluated the impact of the educator's pedagogic skills in disaster medicine. In order to verify the correlation between educator's skill and educational effect for students, it would be necessary to create an objective scale to compare the teaching skill of educators.…”

The Advanced Trauma Life Support course: a history of its development and review of related literature

“…A questionnaire evaluation of participants has shown increased confidence in postgraduate medical education after the instructor course. 30 The bulk of the educational material on the instructors' course is provided in the form of a manual, 31 which provides teaching advice in section III ''Teaching how to teach''. This provides general teaching information about lecturing, running group skill and practical stations, and the final assessment.…”