The value of the abbreviated ATLS course for accident and emergency nurses.

This study was designed to measure the change in knowledge of Accident and Emergency (A & E) nurses in three key areas of trauma care after attending a half-day course based on Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) teaching, and to detect any correlation between the length of experience of nurses in A & E with their theoretical knowledge of the management of severe injuries. A questionnaire was completed by 27 A & E nurses before and after attending the course on trauma management based on the ATLS system. The questions related to triage, initial management and practical procedures in trauma victims. A statistically significant improvement was observed in the overall result after the course. An unexpected finding was the low score on triage related questions. Abbreviated ATLS based teaching provides improved theoretical knowledge for A & E nurses waiting to attend a full trauma course.