WA’s Department of Health Western Trauma Course offers participants the skills needed to assess, triage and manage acute trauma patients.
The WA Department of Health is running a series of courses aimed at rural and remote health care practitioners. The Western Trauma Course offers education, re-training and re-skilling to health care providers wanting to improve their skills at assessing, triaging, and managing acute trauma patients.
The course is aimed at health care professionals working in rural and remote locations across WA, focusing on issues such as sparse population, limited medical facilities and staffing, and longer transport times.
According to the official website, the course has been revised and updated, with major changes implemented to make the course more interactive. For example, participants will take part of hands-on activities, such as going through a full trauma case scenario. There is also a pre-course eLearning module implemented, which follows a patient’s journey from a crash scene all the way through tertiary care. The module will cover topics such as scene safety, the initial assessment process, communication, secondary survey and the need for transfer.
Course overview
The WTC covers the essential components of early trauma management through a combination of:
- eLearning modules
- interactive discussions
- graphic demonstrations
- practical hands-on skill stations and trauma case scenarios.
Participants receive the eLearning module and a course manual approximately 3 weeks before the course and are provided with a certificate of attendance on completion. Course participants will:
- learn new skills
- refresh skills not practised for some time
- gain confidence to deal with trauma patients
- gain knowledge in how to best organise their departments to receive trauma patients.
Course length
The program runs over the course of 9.5 hours. It is generally offered on a Saturday from 7.30 AM to 5.30 PM. The last two courses of 2021 will take place on Saturday 11 September in Geraldton and on Saturday 30 October, in Albany.
Cost
- Medical staff – $670.00 including GST
- Nursing staff, students, ambulance officers – $440.00 including GST
- Non-WA Health employee – $770.00 including GST
Accreditation
- Australian College for Emergency Medicine PDP program – 9.75 ACEM CPD hours.
- Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists: Workshops for 2 credits per hour under the Knowledge and Skills category.
- Australian College of Rural & Remote Medicine – 11 Educational Activity and 2 Performance Review and 2 MOPS (Emergency Medicine) hours.
- Royal Australian College of General Practitioners – CPD Accredited Activity (40 points) under the RACGP CPD program.
To Apply
Download the WTC application form here. Medical staff can attend the course through their respective Primary Health Networks and emergency departments, whereas nurses are invited through hospitals within the health care regions.
For more information: Western Trauma Course (WTC) (health.wa.gov.au)