Pakistan: Cultivating skills for enhanced trauma care

The Emergency Room Trauma Course is a highly practical and simulation-based course designed by the ICRC to enhance the skills of health-care personnel who deal with cases of trauma in the emergency room. We try to familiarize participants with different situations potentially fatal and focus on the stabilization of the patient before proceeding to definitive management.

The methods of training include lectures, presentations and practical simulation exercises, including disaster preparedness, role play, drills, techniques of airway management by bag and masking and tracheal intubation, log rolling and immobilization, fluid resuscitation, etc.

The course teaches diagnostics, including the triage system, to be applied upon arrival of all patients in hospitals emergency rooms to reduce trauma-related mortality through an efficient patient-handling system.

During the training, therapeutic procedures such as basic life-saving techniques, management of multiple and complex injuries and infection control are also covered.

Trainees take part in practical exercises under the supervision of the trainer, allowing them to practise the procedures learnt. The training builds the capacity of health-care professionals who, in turn, serve as trainers for the staff at their respective hospitals, thereby acting as a force multiplier.

Dr Jurrian Reurings, a surgeon from Netherlands who has extensive experience in handling trauma cases in the emergency room, conducted the training. He previously worked in the field in Iraq, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

Upon completion of the course, the attendees were awarded nine Continued Medical Education (CME) hours through Khyber Medical University, Peshawar.