Airedale hospital launches the Trauma and Resuscitation Team Skills (TaRTS) course
1 March 2018
TaRTS is a one day training course mapped to the National Major Trauma Nursing Group Clinical Competencies.
On the 24th of January 2018, the Bradford Teaching Hospital Trauma Team participated in ground-breaking training delivered by the TaRTS team. Developed by Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, TaRTS is a new concept for the provision of training in the management of trauma patients for nurses, doctors and allied health professionals working in trauma units.
As a member of Medipex, Airedale NHS Foundation Trust received the support from our team in obtaining advice on copyright of their training materials, a trademark application and the drafting of template agreements to be used with parties wishing to use the materials themselves.
The problem addressed by this new training course is that all emergency nurses need to demonstrate compliance with the National Major Trauma Nursing Group Level 1 Clinical Competency Curriculum for their organisations to retain their status as Trauma Units. . Existing nurse trauma training courses are either prohibitively expensive for comprehensive uptake, or do not provide training that maps to the NMTNG curriculum such that they don’t provide assurance of competency. Trauma units remain under pressure to improve the training of their staff; as every year there is a peer review process which is required for the unit to demonstrate standards and maintain Trauma Unit status - this includes making sure that all nurses are trained to Level 1.
TaRTS is the first UK course that is fully curriculum mapped to the National Major Trauma Nursing Group Level 1 Clinical Competency Framework. It was developed by Dr Alexandra Danecki, Consultant in Emergency Medicine and Clinical Lead for Major Trauma at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust (fourth from the right), Dr Joel Copperthwaite, Emergency Medicine Simulation Fellow (first from the right), and a team of senior ED nurses.
The course conveys key learning in: * The management of the multiple-injured major trauma patient; * The approach to patients who may present to A&E with occult injury; * Adaptations to the approach for groups of patients with specific needs; * Overview of UK major trauma systems and the role of trauma units within the trauma network; * Human factors and teamworking, with emphasis on the concept of “exemplary followership”.
The course has been run successfully at Airedale five times and Airedale can now demonstrate 100% ED nurse compliance with Level 1 trauma training. The TaRTS concept has been adopted by the West Yorkshire Major Trauma Network. It has been internally and externally peer reviewed and has received endorsement from the Chair of the RCN Emergency Care Association.
The delivery of the training at Bradford Teaching Hospital marks the external launch of the course and represents the first of many training courses. During the one-day course, a team of 17 staff, including, sisters, nurses and nursing and medical students took part in the course, giving them the opportunity to learn these new and invaluable skills. The TaRTS team have already secured 8 bookings to deliver the training course in the Yorkshire region and has received significant interest from trauma units in other major trauma networks across the UK.
Visit the TaRTS website for more information.