Trauma Care questions current practice, engages in debate and looks to the future

The 16^th International Trauma Care Conference took place at the Park Inn Hotel, Telford, Shropshire, between 18–24 April 2015. The conference included first aid and community first responder days in recognition of the key roles these two groups play in patient outcomes within the community. This was then followed by 5 days featuring three conference programmes running each day. The paramedic programme ran on Monday 21 April and the trauma care conference chair for this programme was flight sergeant Andy Thomas, who reports on the day's presentations, key debates and conference take-home messages.

Proceedings began with Dr Marietjie Slabbert delivering a talk on the topic ‘Risky Business: Zen-like strategies in trauma care’. Slabbert recalled her first pre-hospital care experience in South Africa as a very junior doctor, when she was woken in the night by a loud bang from the road outside. She described how woefully ill prepared she was in dealing with multiple seriously injured patients outside the hospital, and gave a gripping and heartfelt account of the emotions and isolation you can experience in pre-hospital care. It was this experience, in addition to being well practised in pre-hospital care around the world, that led her to develop a six step Zen-like strategy to manage pre-hospital care. Step one is to pause and breathe, by doing this you can safely assess the situation and understand your priorities. Step 2 is to control your environment and to not let it control you. Step 3 is to have a reason for what you do and to question current (outdated) practice. This was supported by the Zen proverb: ‘Knowledge is learning something every day, while wisdom is letting go of something every day.’ Step 4 follows the expression 1+1=∞. Within pre-hospital care this alludes to how you must think outside the box and maximise your resources. Step 5 is all about the patient, emphasising that they are the centre of the universe and how all involved in pre-hospital care should leave egos at home. Finally, step 6 follows the adage: ‘Even after enlightenment you still have to do the laundry.’ The speaker touched on areas such as CPR in traumatic arrests, use of collars and some of the general dogma around outdated practice, thus setting the scene for the remaining speakers to explore the detail and evidence further.