The Department of Nursing, Medanta The Medicity and Vidyanta Skills Institute a medical simulation center, hosted the First “TRAUMACON.” The two day masterclass and workshop on Emergency Nursing and Trauma Care was held at Medanta Hospital, Gururgram on 4^th & 5^th  September, 2018.

A comprehensive and interactive program, which includes keynote speakers, oral presentations, panel discussions and workshops comprising of hands on high fidelity simulators, the event addressed the following themes:

• Learning rapid assessment of trauma patient
• Triage management
• Learning technical/clinical skills for different trauma patient management
• Resuscitate and stabilize patients according to priority
• Patient’s inter-hospital transfer (what, who, when and how)
• Common emergency drugs
• Disaster management
• Medical legal issues in trauma care

Audience:

Nurses from various hospitals — Artemis, Fortis, Escorts, Lady Harding, ILBS, LNJP, RML, Hindu Rao, St Stephens, Apollo Healthcare and Medanta

Pre-designed scenarios were acted-out in the simulation laboratory where the participant had an opportunity to enact the roles with moulage patients. With interactive and practical sessions conducted by professional, participants could expect valuable input on innovative and efficient techniques, hands-on experience and practice in a simulation laboratory with high-fidelity mannequin, expert’s lectures, and much more. Participants got the feel of real-life scenarios with moulage patients and high fidelity simulator.  

Capt. Sandhya Shankar, Director – Nursing for Medanta – The Medicity and organizing secretary of TRAUMACON said that the event intended to increase the cognitive, as well as, the clinical skills necessary to care for a patient in either a trauma unit or an emergency situation. The program was in line with the current NABH/JCI protocols for managing trauma cases and emergency.

According to Capt. Sandhya, trauma causes a significant health burden both globally and in India, and affects the young disproportionately. In 2017, in our population, accidents and violence was the fifth leading cause of death. In persons below the age of 45, it was the leading cause of death, accounting for about more than a third of deaths in this group.

The organizing chairperson of TRAUMACON, Jaideep Herbert, Director – Training & Development at Vidyanta Skills Institute said that with a rise in natural disasters and road accidents, we must be prepared to see more and more severely injured patients and sometimes bodies literally beyond repair. In the hospitals, the challenge remains important for patients suffering from head injury with severe intracranial bleeding, septic shocks, multi-organ failure, hemorrhagic shocks and extreme burns despite current improvements in medicine and surgery. The healthcare professionals in Trauma Critical Care is a multidisciplinary team of experts in the management of critically ill and injured patients. However, improved trauma care has reduced mortality and morbidity arising from accidents.

The event brought together trauma and emergency nurses from many disciplines, including emergency, trauma centers, ICUs. The audience had the privilege of hearing experiences and learn from Medanta experts as well as experts from various other hospitals. With the inception of this conference, much more will be achieved for saving the lives of trauma patients.

The topics were covered at Day 1 by various subject matter experts. Dr Devendra Richhariya, Associate Director, Emergency and Trauma Care, Medanta – The Medicity, discussed initial assessment of trauma patients. Ancy Mathew, Manager – Training & Quality, Vidyanta Skills Institute focused on haemorrhagic shock, while Dr. Sudhir Dubey, Director, Medanta Institute of Neurosciences spoke on the topic Head Injuries. After the masterclass the participants were taken to clinical skills stations for hands-on practice under the guidance of Tulsi Gupta & Rakesh, who are the certified simulation specialists and ATCN certified instructors working at Apex Trauma Center, AIIMS, Delhi since 10 years.

The second day got underway with full energy and enthusiasm from participants. The masteclass sessions were taken by Harvinder Kaur, ANS, RML Hospital, Delhi, Dr. Harsh Sapra, Director, Institute of Neurosciences, Medanta – The Medicity, Dr. Maninder Dhaliwal, Associate Director, Paediatrics, Medanta – The Medicity and Dr. Vivekanshu Verma, Associate Consultant, Emergency and Trauma Services, Medanta – The Medicity. After the masterclass session, participants were sent to clinical skills stations for practicing and assessing their skills on molauge patients.

A panel discussion was conducted post lunch on the topic “Medico-legal issues during trauma care”. Eminent panelists from various hospitals including Dr. VGR Shastry, VP, Institute of Emergency, Rockland Hospitals, Capt. Sandhya Shankar, Kumkum Ghosh, GM – Training & Development, Max Healthcare, Dr. A. K. Dubey, Medical Superintendent, Medanta – The Medicity and Arun Joseph, Nurse Educator, Aretmis, participated in the discussions. The panel was moderated by Dr. Annu Khausik, GM – Training & Quality, Columbia Asia Hospitals.  

Capt. Sandhya and Jaideep Herbert wound up the event with the concluding remarks that healthcare professionals tend to be focused on treating the condition at hand. But even as they strive to improve trauma care in India, they must recognize that trauma prevention is integral if not the most important part of a robust trauma management system. Healthcare professionals should actively engage their stakeholders in trauma prevention, especially if in the course of one’s practice, one observes injuries and patterns that can be avoided through preventive measures. Personal experience with the cases one observes, gives the added edge to convince non-medical colleagues and drive them to cooperative action. Given India’s ageing population, the number of falls among the elderly is expected to rise. The team will expand falls prevention programs so that more seniors benefit and so that we can contain this emerging healthcare burden.

The organizing committee also conducted pre and post self-assessment of nurses to assess their confidence level of managing trauma patients. The use of assessment instruments showed that the hands-on practice sessions, simultaneously with theory sessions on the same topic was effective in enhancing core clinical competencies of nurses.

The organizing committee extended gratitude to all experts at the skills stations and masterclass for training nurses from various hospitals to manage the problems they encounter in the management of trauma patients in and out of hospital settings.