Identification of Trauma Skills for Nursing Personnel

The future battlefield will be characterizedby rapid, fierce fighting using highly lethal weapons. Without rapid resuscitationby well-trained trauma forward surgical teams, severely injured soldierswill not survive. However, peacetime military medical services have shiftedto ambulatory patient care and few facilities provide major trauma careservices. Thus, the dilemma is to provide sufficient training in a peacetimeenvironment to support the readiness posture required for the wartime mission. As it is not feasible for all trauma teams to train in civilian facilities, training needs must be defined followed by the development of alternativetraining strategies. The purpose of this study is to delineate trauma trainingrequirements as perceived by highly skilled tri-service military officerand enlisted nursing personnel assigned to the one year trauma trainingpilot study at Ben Taub General Hospital, Houston, Texas. Through a successionof 6 focus groups, trauma training requirements for emergent care, preoperativecare, anesthesia, and intensive care will be defined. The second studyaim is to evaluate the trauma training components (psychomotor, cognitive and affective) of the BTGH pilot program. The clarification of traumatraining requirements for officer and enlisted personnel will assist inthe future development of trauma training programs.