Trauma training guidelines

Trauma training guidelines are in place to ensure that trauma treatment is delivered in a recognised and reliable format. Most trauma training guidelines used on courses are based on a balance of medical and educational needs and ideas.

Much of our trauma training works to the following guidelines:

SAFE Approach

S- Shout for help

A- Assess the scene and approach with care

F-Find the casualty and free them from danger

E-Evaluate- the Mechanism of injury [MOI] and then the casualty

CABC assessment

C- Catastrophic bleeding- is there obvious catastrophic bleeding [normally compressible bleeding]?

A- Airway-is there a clear and open airway?

B- Breathing- is the casualty breathing normally? Check first for breathing, then if the breathing/ventilation is adequate.

C- Circulation and Shock- is there any other wounds? Perform a blood sweep and consider shock.

D- Disability- is there any sign of a head injury or lowered level of response? Remember AVPU- Alert, Voice, Pain, Unresponsive

E1- Expose- expose the casualty to assess fully for injuries- the best first aid is naked first aid.

E2- Environment- is the casualty getting cold or hot?

E3- Evacuate- how is the casualty getting to medical care.

MIST

When handing a casualty over to medical care you will only have a short period of time to impart what has happened. Depending on the medical staff you may have only 30 seconds to impress!

M- Mechanism of injury

I- Injuries seen or suspected

S- Signs and symptoms

T- Treatment given [or planned]

The MIST handover is sometimes enhanced with the pre-fix- AT ie AT MIST

A- Age

T- Time of incident.

These trauma training guidelines are not designed to replace training, more to act as a reminder for those that have attended training such as our Authorised Firearms Officer standard medical training or our media safety courses.