Do trauma courses change practice? A qualitative review of 20 courses in East, Central and Southern Africa

Trauma courses have been shown to improve clinical knowledge and patient outcomes. However, little is known about the individual drivers of change in practice amongst course participants in their home clinic environment.

Front-line healthcare workers participated in a two-day Primary Trauma Care (PTC) course. Immediately after the course participants completed an evaluation survey on intended change in the management of trauma patients. Six months after the course, participants completed a survey on actual changes that had occurred.

A total of 451 participants were sampled, with 321 responding at 6 months, from 40 courses across East, Central and Southern Africa. The most commonly reported intended change was the adoption of an ABCDE/systematic approach (53%). Six months after the course, 92.7% of respondents reported that they had made changes in their management, with adoption of an ABCDE/systematic approach (50.0%) remaining most common. 77% of participants reported an improvement in departmental trauma management, 26% reported an increase in staffing, 29% an increase in equipment and 68% of participants had gone on to train other healthcare workers in PTC.

The findings suggest that PTC courses not only improve individual management of trauma patients but also but is also associated with beneficial effects for participants’ host institutions with regards to staffing, equipment and training.