Ambulance Nurses' Competence and Perception of Competence in Prehospital Trauma Care.

Anna Abelsson,Lillemor Lindwall,Ingrid Rystedt,Björn-Ove Suserud

doi:10.1155/2018/5910342

Abstract

Introduction We focus on trauma care conducted in the context of a simulated traumatic event. This is in this study defined as a four-meter fall onto a hard surface, resulting in severe injuries to extremities in the form of bilateral open femur fractures, an open tibia fracture, and a closed pelvic fracture, all fractures bleeding extensively. Methods The simulated trauma care competence of 63 ambulance nurses in prehospital emergency care was quantitatively evaluated along with their perception of their sufficiency. Data was collected by means of simulated trauma care and a questionnaire. Results Life-saving interventions were not consistently performed. Time to perform interventions could be considered long due to the life-threatening situation. In comparison, the ambulance nurses' perception of the sufficiency of their theoretical and practical knowledge and skills for trauma care scored high. In contrast, the perception of having sufficient ethical training for trauma care scored low. Discussion This study suggests there is no guarantee that the ambulance nurses' perception of theoretical and practical knowledge and skill level corresponds with their performed knowledge and skill. The ambulance nurses rated themselves having sufficient theoretical and practical knowledge and skills while the score of trauma care can be considered quite low.

Highlights

We focus on trauma care conducted in the context of a simulated traumatic event
We evaluated the simulated trauma care competence of 63 ambulance nurses in prehospital emergency care and in relation to the simulation collected data, by means of a questionnaire, on their perception of having sufficient trauma care knowledge and skills, experience, and training
The self-rated perception of having sufficient theoretical trauma care training (45%) and practical training (50%) scored low, implying that the ambulance nurses in prehospital emergency care feel the need for more training

Summary

Introduction

We focus on trauma care conducted in the context of a simulated traumatic event. The simulated trauma care competence of 63 ambulance nurses in prehospital emergency care was quantitatively evaluated along with their perception of their sufficiency. The ambulance nurses’ perception of the sufficiency of their theoretical and practical knowledge and skills for trauma care scored high. The ambulance nurses rated themselves having sufficient theoretical and practical knowledge and skills while the score of trauma care can be considered quite low. Simulation is an educational method that is increasingly used where the ambulance nurses in prehospital emergency care practice can improve their knowledge, skills, and experience in the care of injured patients [9]. Prior research has described the simulated learning of different care actions, such as external compression to temporize exsanguination [13] or the difficulties with intubating a prehospital patient [14, 15]

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