EM · Trauma team leadership
Trauma team leadership
The trauma team activation, composition and leadership: the pre-arrival briefing, the paramedic MIST handover, the allocated roles, the standing-back team leader who directs the primary survey, the decision points of theatre versus CT, the crisis resource management, and the post-trauma debrief.
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8 MCQs with explanations
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Meet the patient
The pre-hospital call comes through at 02:14. A 25-year-old cyclist has been struck by a truck at 60 km/h and thrown 5 metres — GCS 8 at scene, intubated by the flight doctor, systolic 90, an obviously deformed right leg and bruising across the abdomen. ETA eight minutes. You are the team leader.[3]
Your job in those eight minutes is to turn a crowd into a team: read the roles aloud, check the airway trolley and the blood, warn theatre, and predict the injuries before the trolley comes through the door. The question this patient plants is the one every trauma stem turns on — does the physiology declare source control, or does it tolerate the scanner? Hold that question and the resus falls into place.[4]
You have read the opening of this topic. The complete unit — every section and its primary-source references — is part of the Emergency Medicine fellowship atlas.
References12Show ledgerHide ledger
- [1]Greif R, Bhanji F, Bigham BL, et al. Education, Implementation, and Teams: 2020 International Consensus on Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (ILCOR CoSTR). Resuscitation, 2020.PMID 33098918
- [2]Farquharson B, Caesar D, McKee S, et al. Teaching team competencies within resuscitation training: a systematic review. Resuscitation Plus, 2024.PMID 39006135
- [3]Galvagno SM Jr, Nahmias JT, Young DA Advanced Trauma Life Support(®) Update 2019: Management and Applications for Adults and Special Populations. Anesthesiology clinics, 2019.PMID 30711226
- [4]Tiel Groenestege-Kreb D, van Maarseveen O, Leenen L Trauma team. British journal of anaesthesia, 2014.PMID 24980423
- [5]Henriksen K, Battles JB, Keyes MA, et al. TeamSTEPPS(™): Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety. 2008.PMID 21249942
- [6]Pai DR, Kumar VH, Sobana R Perioperative crisis resource management simulation training in anaesthesia. Indian journal of anaesthesia, 2024.PMID 38406342
- [7]Alexandrino H, Martinho B, Ferreira L, et al. Non-technical skills and teamwork in trauma: from the emergency department to the operating room. Frontiers in medicine, 2023.PMID 38116034
- [8]Fanning RM, Gaba DM The role of debriefing in simulation-based learning. Simulation in healthcare : journal of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare, 2007.PMID 19088616
- [9]Tiel Groenestege-Kreb D, van Maarseveen O, Leenen L Trauma team. British journal of anaesthesia, 2014.PMID 24980423
- [10]Haslam NR, Bouamra O, Lawrence T, et al. Time to definitive care within major trauma networks in England. BJS open, 2020.PMID 32644299
- [11]Braithwaite J, Wears RL, Hollnagel E Resilient health care: turning patient safety on its head. International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care, 2015.PMID 26294709
- [12]Chien DS, Yiang GT, Liu CY, et al. Association of In-Hospital Mortality and Trauma Team Activation: A 10-Year Study. Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland), 2022.PMID 36292022