Establishing Standards for Trauma Nursing Education: The Central Ohio Trauma System's Approach.

Trauma nursing requires mastering a highly specialized body of knowledge. Expert nursing care is expected to be offered throughout the hospital continuum, yet identifying the necessary broad-based objectives for nurses working within this continuum has often been difficult to define. Trauma nurse leaders and educators from 7 central and southeastern Ohio trauma centers and 1 regional trauma organization convened to establish an approach to standardizing trauma nursing education from a regional perspective. Forty-two trauma nursing educational objectives were identified. The Delphi method was used to narrow the list to 3 learning objectives to serve as the framework for a regional trauma nursing education guideline. Although numerous trauma nursing educational needs were identified across the continuum of care, a lack of clearly defined standards exists. Recognizing and understanding the educational preparation and defined standards required for nurses providing optimal trauma care are vital for a positive impact on patient outcomes. This regional trauma nursing education guideline is a novel model and can be used to assist trauma care leaders in standardizing trauma education within their hospital, region, or state. The use of this model may also lead to the identification of gaps within trauma educational systems.

A Statewide Collaboration: Ohio Level III Trauma Centers' Approach to the Development of a Benchmarking System.

The American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma revised the Resources for Optimal Care of the Injured Patient to include the criteria for trauma centers to participate in a risk-adjusted benchmarking system. Trauma Quality Improvement Program is currently the risk-adjusted benchmarking program sponsored by the American College of Surgeons, which will be required of all trauma centers to participate in early 2017. Prior to this, there were no risk-adjusted programs for Level III verified trauma centers. The Ohio Society of Trauma Nurse Leaders is a collaborative group made up of trauma program managers, coordinators, and other trauma leaders who meet 6 times a year. Within this group, a Level III Subcommittee was formed initially to provide a place for the Level III centers to discuss issues specific to the Level III centers. When the new requirement regarding risk-adjustment became official, the subcommittee agreed to begin reporting simple data points with the idea to risk adjust in the future.

Core Team Members' Impact on Outcomes and Process Improvement in the Initial Resuscitation of Trauma Patients.

Genesis Trauma Center is an American College of Surgeons-The Committee on Trauma-verified Level III facility located in Southeastern Ohio. Process improvement and patient safety showed inconsistencies in trauma documentation and comfort level of the nursing staff. In February 2014, Genesis implemented a trauma nurse leader program to provide a core team of trauma nurses for the initial resuscitation. The overall goal of implementing a trauma nurse leader (TNL) program was to focus education on a core team, providing an increased level of skill of experience to oversee trauma patient care. The TNL program has shown promise in the pilot phase by decreasing emergency department length of stay and improving trauma documentation.