Trauma Care Principles

Excerpt

In 2018, the American College of Surgeons and its Committee on Trauma released the Tenth Edition of the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) course. For providers, ATLS forms the framework used in the assessment and treatment of patients who suffer traumatic injuries. Above all else, the guiding principles of ATLS are both the primary and secondary surveys. The utilization of these surveys and the skills that accompany them allow all interprofessional team members to treat patients under one standardized method and communicate using one common language. This streamlines the assessment and treatment of every patient, allowing them to receive definitive care faster and improve their outcomes. The advantage of ATLS is made evident during moments of stress. Because of the time-sensitive nature of these cases, added stressors, such as a provider’s limited knowledge of the patient’s mechanism of injury or history, can be overwhelming. ATLS acts as a tool to cognitively off-load these distractions and gives the provider more time to analyze their patients and communicate more effectively with their team. Trauma care principles will highlight the fundamental skills of ATLS and provide its readers with essential knowledge that providers can implement immediately.