Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) Reverification course

This course is open to ATLS® providers who regularly manage severely injured patients and who have taken the ATLS® course within the last four and a half years. 

Providers who do not regularly manage severely injured patients should reverify by attending the full two-day ATLS® Provider course. The one-day course requires a high degree of familiarity with trauma resuscitation and uses the provider's own experiences to illustrate important principles of trauma management. 

Reverification of your ATLS® provider status must happen no later than six months after your status lapses (which happens four years after you take the course).

If you wait any longer than six months, you will need to re-take the full two-day ATLS® course. 

After attending this course, you will be able to:

• Demonstrate refreshed knowledge of all principles of ATLS® and its safe, reliable method for immediate management of the injured trauma patient
• Effectively use the standardised language of trauma care

ATLS® combines a variety of well established and effective learning formats such as interactive discussions, clinical scenarios with embedded skills and demonstrations. You will be encouraged to share knowledge and experience with your peers throughout the course. 

Some ATLS® centres use animal tissue on courses. Please check with the centre in advance if this is a concern for you. The Bjorn Saven Centre at RCS England doesn't use animal tissue on ATLS®.

Mandatory, pre-course e-learning

Before the course, you will be required to complete the pre-course e-learning consisting of one module, including videos and MCQs. It takes approximately 1-2 hours to complete this work. Completion of the mandatory part of the e-learning is a requirement to attend the course. Participants who have not completed the mandatory part of the e-learning in full by 7am the day before the course will not be allowed to participate in the course and will forfeit their course fee. 

You will have access to all e-learning modules and videos and we strongly recommend that you complete the e-learning in full in preparation for the course. 

Course participants will receive access to the pre-course e-learning resources on the RCS VLE via notification with login details four weeks before the course at the latest. 

It is also mandatory to read the ATLS® student course manual prior to the face-to-face component of the course. 

Assessment

You will be assessed throughout the course and you have to pass all assessed sessions to pass the course and be awarded ATLS® provider status. 

There are interactive sessions and clinical scenario stations and your performance of practical skills and contribution to discussions that test participants' core knowledge will be assessed throughout these sessions.

You will also take an MCQ test consisting of 40 questions with the pass mark of 30/40. If you are unsuccessful on the course you can take up to two resits within three months of the course. You will not be given your answer sheet or told which questions you answered incorrectly. Reading the ATLS® manual prior to the course is the best preparation for the MCQs - there are no lectures in the face-to-face component of the course; you must arrive with a high level of clinical knowledge. 

Initial assessment of the trauma patient will also take place on the last day of the course. You will also be given a simulated clinical scenario and you will be assessed on the initial assessment and management of a patient according to objective assessment criteria. If you are unsuccessful in your first attempt on the course you will be given the opportunity to repeat the initial assessment of the trauma patient on the course using a different scenario. If unsuccessful, at the course director's discretion, you might be given a final resit on another course. 

If you have not met the minimum standard to pass the course you will not be given the opportunity to re-sit failed sessions and you will have to successfully complete another provider course to gain ATLS® provider status.