This course provides the knowledge and skills needed to perform a comprehensive patient assessment, make initial management decisions, and to communicate assessment findings and patient care verbally and in writing. Content areas include: airway management, history taking, techniques of the physical examination, patient assessment, clinical decision making, communications, documentation and assessment based management.

This course additionally relates pathophysiology and assessment findings to the formulation of field impressions and implementation of treatment plans for trauma patients. Content areas include the pathophysiology, assessment, and management of trauma as related to: trauma systems; mechanisms of injury; haemorrhage and shock; soft tissue injuries; burns; and head, facial, spinal, thoracic, abdominal, and musculoskeletal trauma.

Competences

at the end of the module/unit the learner will have acquired the responsibility and autonomy to:

1. The delegate will learn to Assess and treat trauma casualties independently that require problem-solving techniques where there are many factors, some of which interact and lead to unpredictable outcomes.

2. The delegate will show creativity in managing ALS patient assessment, whilst managing people and will review performance of self and others using the Gibbs reflective model, and will train others to assist during medical emergencies.

3. The delegate will express a comprehensive internalised personal world view by utilising the Gibbs reflective model for reflecting on past performance.

4. The delegate will learn skills to undertake further emergency medical studies with a degree of autonomy.

Knowledge

at the end of the module/unit the learner will have been exposed to the following: 

1. The delegate will build on their foundational knowledge of the trauma patient assessment and the kinematics of trauma related injuries whilst developing advanced concepts in trauma treatment for injuries found in remote and austere environments.

2. The delegate will develop strategic and creative responses in researching solutions to well defined concrete and abstract problems.

3. The delegate will learn to makes judgements based on knowledge of relevant social and ethical issues surrounding patient assessment, trauma assessment and medical assessment including the treatments for medical emergencies found in resource poor environments. 

Skills

at the end of the module/unit the learner will have mastered the following skills:

Applying knowledge and understanding

The learner will be able to:

a) Demonstrate and interpret comprehensive knowledge of.

b) Identify and manage comprehensive knowledge of the causes and

c) Interpret and apply assessment findings with principles of epidemiology and pathophysiology to formulate a field impression to implement a comprehensive treatment/disposition plan for an acutely injured patient.

1. The delegate will understand advanced textbooks that will lead to further academic medical learning and will research solutions to the causes and pathophysiology into the management of trauma states.

2. The delegate will demonstrate operational capacity and medical management skills using creativity and improvisation.

3. The delegate will interact with other medical team members to convey abstract and concrete medical solutions to emergencies.

4. The delegate will formulate practical and theoretical responses to abstract and concrete medical problems and makes judgments on social and ethical issues pertaining to the trauma casualty.

5. The delegate will evaluate their own medical learning and will improve key competences for further medical learning and will promote team training.

6. The delegate shows responsibility for the reflective and efficient management of medical emergencies within agreed timeframes.

Judgment Skills and Critical Abilities

The learner will demonstrate a fundamental understanding of the Trauma Airway Management, Trauma assessment, Respiratory Emergencies, Cardiovascular Emergencies, Neurologic Emergencies, Abdominal and Gastrointestinal Emergencies, Endocrine Emergencies, Haematologic Emergencies, Immunologic Emergencies, Trauma Systems and Mechanism of Injury, Shock and Resuscitation, Special Patient Populations.