“When it comes to treating physical trauma, minutes matter,” says Cheryle Ward, executive director of Georgia Trauma Foundation, “and it can be the difference between life and death. Traumatic accidents don’t always happen close to a trauma center, so it’s crucial that rural emergency room teams are trained to provide the appropriate care.”  

Georgia Trauma Foundation’s Rural Continuing Education Program stresses how it is essential to take action within the first hour a traumatic injury occurs. Physical traumas, often resulting in uncontrolled bleeding, head trauma, or spinal cord injuries, require specialized medical attention known as trauma care. These conditions can cause permanent, long-term, or serious disability and can be life threatening. In fact, uncontrolled bleeding is the leading cause of preventable death from trauma.

The Rural Continuing Education Program’s trauma care instructors share advanced training courses with staff at rural hospitals in areas located a considerable distance from a trauma center. The emergency room providers are taught how to properly assess and stabilize patients before swiftly transferring them to the best-suited trauma care facilities. This results in more Georgians receiving the help they need when they need it most.

Georgia Trauma Foundation coordinates the offering of these courses, which have been developed by respected medical professional organizations (American College of Surgeons and the Emergency Nurses Association) and are taught by experienced, credentialed trauma care providers, including surgeons, emergency physicians, nurses, and paramedics. 

The current courses available are:

• Rural Trauma Team Development Course (RTTDC)

Designed to enhance trauma care in rural areas, this comprehensive course focuses on creating a coordinated and efficient response by healthcare teams to treat trauma patients effectively. Training includes organizing a trauma team, preparing facilities, identifying local resources and limitations, and establishing a performance improvement process. The goal is to optimize the initial assessment and stabilization of trauma patients. 

• Emergency Nursing Pediatric Course (ENPC)

ENPC is an essential course to help nurses enhance their pediatric care capabilities and provide the highest standard of emergency care. It shares the most current pediatric emergency nursing practices, and how to conduct systematic assessments and apply critical care interventions. 

• Trauma Nursing Core Course (TNCC)

Guided by the minutes matter approach, TNCC gives emergency nurses the skills to timely stabilize patients and provide high-quality trauma nursing care to those with life-threatening injuries. The course includes hands-on training, and it emphasizes the importance of a systematic approach to patient assessment and the application of evidence-based practices, which are crucial in improving patient survival and recovery rates.

Healthcare professionals value continuing education programs. However, rural providers often face access barriers, including the limited number of course offerings, distance to training sites, travel-related expenses, and registration fees and other course costs. Georgia Trauma Foundation works to eliminate these barriers by offering the courses at locations throughout the state at no cost. 

“Education programs are key to our mission of investing in trauma care in Georgia,” Ward says. “We’re confident the Rural Continuing Education Program is helping save lives, and we encourage the public to support our efforts through action and donations.” 

This initiative is made possible through grant funding from the State Office of Rural Health, a division of the Georgia Department of Community Health.

Learn more about the Georgia Trauma Foundation and its Rural Continuing Education Program and join a community of lifesavers by donating to the Georgia Trauma Foundation by visiting: GeorgiaTraumaFoundation.org.