Abstract
We have adopted a trauma response system, termed the trauma code, in our hospital since March 2020. In this system, operating room nurses participate in trauma surgery in the emergency and operating rooms. However, many operating room nurses had limited knowledge and experience in trauma surgery and, hence, were highly anxious about participating. As such, we conducted a training course including lectures and hands-on training for the surgical management of chest and abdominal trauma using pigs as models. We subsequently investigated how this training course helped increase knowledge and confidence of surgical trauma care among four operating room nurses specializing in gastrointestinal surgery. Before the course, the nurses expressed considerable anxiety about being involved in trauma surgery; however, after completing the training, all nurses expressed confidence and motivation regarding participating in and improving trauma care. This experience suggests that off-the-job training courses for surgical trauma care can help increase confidence and motivation among operating room nurses, and could thus have a positive impact on the entire trauma team.
