Trauma teams in emergency care : doctors' and nurses' views

Abstract

The Accident and Emergency (A&E) department provides emergency care to a large number of patients, presenting with various types of complaints including life threatening injuries and illnesses, medical disorders and traumatic injuries. Globally, trauma teams are a means to resuscitate critically ill patients, to determine the nature and extent of the injuries, to categorize, prioritize, and to prepare patient for definitive care. The purpose of the study was aimed to explore the nurses' and doctors' views of a trauma team in the Emergency Department. The objectives were aimed to identify who should form part of the trauma team, explore the specific roles of each member, determine the factors that influence the performance of the team, describe the benefits of the team in the A&E department and to determine the need for further training. This is an exploratory study given that no research on the subject of trauma teams has been carried out in Malta. A purposive sample of nurses' and doctors' working in the Emergency Department who have completed at least one year of working experience in the A&E department was selected. A total of 66 respondents have returned the questionnaire rendering a response rate of 54.1 %. Tool used a combination of open-ended and close ended questions. Open-ended questions were analyzed thematically, whilst close-ended questions were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Findings suggested that according to doctors' and nurses' in the A&E department, although no official trauma team, as described in the literature, is present in Malta they are aware of how it works in collaboration with other services such as ambulances, who should form part of it, who should lead this team, what factors could be practical to improve its function and thus improving patient outcome, together with the use of training and further education. Interestingly, nurses and doctors have also expressed the view that the emergency department would benefit if a trauma team system is in place. Overall, this study has indicated that there is still some room for improvement in the present emergency care system when it comes to trauma. In view of these findings, several recommendations for further research and practice were put forward.