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We have compiled a list of questions which come up often in conversation. These questions are listed below, with links to the answers. Feel free to scroll through this material in any order you wish. If you have questions that are not answered below, please feel free to contact the PHTLS office or a member of the Executive to assist your further.
NOTE: You may use the "Find" function on your browser to search for specific words. For instance, you might start "Find," type "research," and so proceed directly to the Question which asks about "research." Please experiment!
General PHTLS Questions
The PHTLS Provider Program
The PHTLS Instructor Program
What is PHTLS?
The Prehospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS) course is a unique continuing education program created in recognition of the real need in EMS education for additional training in the handling of trauma patients. This indispensable program is designed to enhance and increase knowledge and skill in delivering critical care in the prehospital environment.
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What is so special about the PHTLS course?
| It's proven. The PHTLS course provides an opportunity to improve the quality of trauma care and has been shown to improve mortality and morbidity tests. (Refer to Research Page & supporting citations)
It's critical thinking. PHTLS promotes critical thinking as the foundation for providing quality care. PHTLS has always believed that, given a good fund of knowledge and key principles, EMT's are capable of making reasoned decisions regarding patient care.
It's easy to implement. Enhanced instructor materials and support from an integrated, worldwide network of PHTLS coordinators allow you to focus more energy on teaching and less time on administration.
It's authoritative. This leading course is developed by leaders in the field - the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians (NAEMT) and the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma.
It's inclusive. The PHTLS course is now structured to include participation of basic and advanced prehospital care providers, nurses and physicians. |
It's current. The PHTLS course has been updated and revised to keep up with advances in the field, ATLS Guidelines and feedback from PHTLS participants.
It's flexible. The PHTLS course can be incorporated into initial EMT training, offered as refresher training, or as a stand-alone course.
It's consistent. The backing and support of an international organization ensures consistency in all PHTLS programs.
It's rewarding. The PHTLS course helps First Responders, EMTs and paramedics earn continuing education credits. CE credit is also available for nurses and physicians.
It supports the profession. Proceeds from the PHTLS program go directly to the NAEMT for support of its mission.
It's big. Hundreds of thousands of EMTs, paramedics, nurses, and physicians throughout the world - civilian and military - have taken the PHTLS course and are now better prepared to treat severely injured trauma patients. |
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Who benefits from PHTLS?
The Community. The PHTLS course provides an opportunity to improve mortality and morbidity rates and the quality of trauma care in your area.
Students. Students in the PHTLS course get a quality education in trauma with a focus on critical thinking.
Instructors. PHTLS instructors receive an array of support - including the support of an integrated, worldwide network of PHTLS coordinators and completely restructured instructor materials.
Hospital Staff. The PHTLS course helps bridge the gap from the field to the hospital by creating a shared learning experience in an environment of mutual respect for EMTs, nurses, and physicians.
The EMT Profession. Proceeds from PHTLS go to support the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians, (NAEMT) an organization to serve EMTs. |
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What does PHTLS cover?
PHTLS picks up where other educational programs leave off. The course focuses on trauma patients in the prehospital environment-how to identify, manage, and transport them with the highest level of care and give them the greatest chance of survival.
PHTLS students learn to:
- Identify the mechanism of injury
- Recognize life-threatening injuries
- Relate pathophysiology to injuries
- Assess and manage trauma patients
- Perform appropriate interventions
- And a whole lot more?
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The skills stations in the PHTLS course include:
- Airway Management & Venitlation
- Assessment & Management
- Rapid Extrication
- Spinal Immobilization
- Pediatric Assessment
- Pediatric Immobilization
- Evaluation Scenarios
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How are PHTLS programs offered?
| Course |
Description |
CEU's |
| Provider |
This is the core" course of PHTLS instruction. It is designed to provide the prehospital provider with knowledge and skills for the prehospital assessment and care of the trauma patient. Recognition of successful completion is for 4 years. |
16 |
| Refresher |
This course is designed to be a one-day workshop to update providers on the latest PHTLS philosophies and techniques. Recognition of successful completion is for 4 years. |
8 |
| Instructor |
This course is designed to train instructor candidates for conducting provider and refresher courses. To maintain current Instructor status, an Instructor must teach a minimum of 1 program per year. Recognition of successful completion is for 4 years. |
8 |
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How do I become an instructor/coordinator?
To become a PHTLS instructor/coordinator, you need to take the Provider and Instructor courses.
A listing of all current provider and instructor programmes, including domestic U.S.A., military and international, are listed on the PHTLS programs page.
A pilot Trauma Instructor Transitional course is available for access to eligible individuals.
U.S.A. regional., military and international PHTLS coordinators can answer questions and provide information about PHTLS courses and materials. And when you're ready to teach your first PHTLS course, we'll be there to support you.
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Has PHTLS been proven to be an effective program?
Results from a study published in The Journal of Trauma: Injury, Infection, and Critical Care (view our Research page for citations) indicate that learning trauma skills from the PHTLS course may be associated with improved mortality and morbidity rates.
The study indicates that "there was a further improvement in overall trauma patient mortality from 15.7% to 10.6% after the PHTLS course?"
"We have demonstrated in this study that, after the introduction of the PHTLS program. There was better airway control, C-spine control, splinting of fractures, hemorrhage control, and use of oxygen These factors may have accounted for patients arriving at the hospital setting in a more optimal state. This status, in turn, should be expected to improve the chances of survival of patients as well as decrease the morbidity rates after injuries."
For more details:
Ali J, Adam RU, Gana TJ, et al.
Effect of the Prehospital Trauma Life Support Program (PHTLS) on prehospital trauma care.
The Journal of Trauma: Injury; Infection, and Critical Care 1997:42:786.
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How was PHTLS Developed?
In 1979, care of trauma patients took a giant step forward with the inauguration of the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) course. The first chairman of the ATLS ad hoc committee for the American College of Surgeons and chairman of the Prehospital Care Subcommittee on Trauma for the American College of Surgeons, Dr. Norman E. McSwain, JR. FACS, knew that what they had begun would have a profound effect on the outcome of trauma patients. Moreover, he had a strong sense that an even greater effect could come from bringing this type of critical training to prehospital care providers.
Dr. McSwain, a founding member of the board of directors of the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians ( NAEMT), gained support of the Association's president, Gary Labeau, and began to lay plans for a prehospital version of ATLS. President Labeau directed Dr.McSwain and Robert Nelson, NREMT-P, to determine the feasibility of an ATLS-type program for prehospital care providers. As a professor of surgery at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana , Dr. McSwain gained the University's support in putting together the draft curriculum of what was to become Prehospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS). With this draft in place, in 1983, a PHTLS committee was established. This committee continued to refine the curriculum, and later that same year, pilot courses were conducted at Tulane; Marian Health Center in Sioux City, Iowa; Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut; and Norwalk Hospital in Norwalk, Connecticut.
Tulane also hosted the first National Faculty course in early 1984. This was followed in he summer of 1984 by a course in Denver, Colorado. The graduates of these early courses formed what would be the " Barnstormers," PHTLS national and regional faculty members who traveled the country training more faculty members, spreading the word that PHTLS had arrived.
Early courses focused on advance life support (ALS). In 1986, a course that encompassed basic life support (BLS) was developed. The course grew exponentially. Beginning with those first few enthusiastic faculty members , first dozens, then hundreds, and now thousands of providers annually participate in PHTLS courses all over the world.
As the course grew, the PHTLS committee became a division of the NAEMT. Course demand and the need to maintain course continuity and quality necessitated the building of networks of affiliate, state, regional, and national faculty members. There are national coordinators for every country,and in each country there are regional and state coordinators along with affiliate faculty members to make sure that information is disseminated and courses are consistent whether you participate in a program in Chicago Heights, Illinois, or Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Throughout the growth process medical direction has been provided by the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma. For nearly 20 years the partnership between the American College of Surgeons and the NAEMT has ensured that course participants are given the opportunity to give trauma patients everywhere their best chance at survival.
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PHTLS in the Military
Beginning in 1988, the U.S. military aggressively set out to train its medics in PHTLS. Coordinated by DMRT, the Defense Medical Readiness Training Institute at Fort Sam Houston in Texas. PHTLS is taught all over the United States, Europe, and Asia and anywhere the flags of the U.S. Military fly. In 2001, the Army's 91WB program standardized the training of over 58,000 Army medics to include PHTLS.
The participation of the US military in the program includes providing a chapter to cover the particular needs of the military and provide information on tactical medicine that is of interest to any population in the modern world.
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International PHTLS
The sound prehospital trauma management emphasized in the PHTLS course led to prehospital care providers and physicians outside of the United States to request the importation of the program to their various countries. This had been assisted by ATLS faculty members presenting ATLS courses worldwide. This network Provides medical direction and course continuity.
As PHTLS has moved across the United States and around the globe, we have been struck by the differences in our cultures and climates and also by the similarities of the people who devote their lives to caring for the sick and injured. All of us who have been blessed with the opportunity to teach overseas have experienced the fellowship with our international partners and know that we are all one people in pursuit of caring for those who need care the most.
The nations in the growing PHTLS family include the following: Australia, Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Columbia, England, Greece, Holland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Switzerland, Trinidad, the United States, and Venezuela. Demonstration courses have been run in the Bulgaria, Macedonia, and soon Croatia, with hopes to establish faculty members there in the near future. Peru, Portugal*, Denmark*, Japan, Korea, South Africa, and Nigeria all hope to join the family in the near future.
(*NOTE: Portugal and Denmark are now active PHTLS countries)
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Vision of the future
The vision for the future of PHTLS is family. The father of PHTLS, Dr. McSwain, is the root of the growing family that provides vital training and contributes knowledge and experience to the world. The inaugural International PHTLS Trauma Symposium was near Chicago, Illinois, In the year 2000. This first program pitted the controversies facing trauma care against the will and energy of prehospital trauma providers. These programs will bring the work of practitioners and researchers around the globe together to determine the standards of trauma care for the new millennium.
(1) PHTLS 5th Edition - copyrite Mosby Inc.
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What resources are available for the participant?
 The PHTLS 5th edition text and accompanying CDROM has now been published. This manual is an integral part of the PHTLS program and can serve as a valuable resource for your personal library.
To answer any queries regarding PHTLS, you can contact your local PHTLS Instructors & Coordinators, Affiliate Faculty, State Coordinators, (International; Domestic Regional; Military) and the PHTLS International Office Division Director as appropriate. And further, you can access the Executive Council via this website.
PHTLS has two discussion listservers available for you to use. One is a restricted listserv; the other is one intended specifically for PHTLS Instructors, Coordinators and Affiliates.
This website is also available for your use. We will do our best to keep you informed of new developments as they occur. If you have any questions regarding information posted here or have suggestions on what you would find useful, please contact Mary-Ann.
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What resources are available for the InstructorCoordinator?
In addition to resources available to the PHTLS Provider, the Instructor/Coordinator has access to the PHTLS Instructor's Manual, 6th edition, and PHTLS Slides and/or CD ROM which hold the power point presentations to facilitate lectures. Supplementary materials are also available on the Instructor Resource Bank page. Go to the resources and 6th edition page for specific information.
Education Programme Software (NEW) - (7,845kb Please allow for download time) this software was developed for NAEMT by EMS Solutions Inc., and holds tools for PHTLS, AMLS & EPC programmes. A .pdf User Manual is also available (2,363kb) This software is free to all PHTLS/AMLS/EPC Coordinator/Instructors.
The Instructor/Coordinator can also access Affiliate Faculty, State Coordinators, the PHTLS International Office Division Director and or the Executive Council to assist with any questions or issues as they arise.
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How often are Provider & Instructor Coordinator resources updated ?
The PHTLS textbook, Instructor Manual and slide set are in a continuous review and update process that is linked to the ATLS materials. There will be new, updated course materials published every 4 years, approximately 1 year after the new ATLS materials are released.
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As an Instructor, when can I integrate new materials into PHTLS programs?
Instructors whom wish to run courses using the new materials will be required to first attend a PHTLS Instructor Update Workshop. These will be conducted by PHTLS National faculty and disseminated through the affiliates under the guidance of the PHTLS Executive Council. There will be a limited phase-in period during which the previous edition will still be available for instructors who have not attended an update. Upon release of the new materials, the dates for update courses will be distributed along with notification on how long the previous edition will be available.
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How do I register to take a PHTLS program?
You can peruse the "Programs" page on this website to find the program being held closest to your location. Or you can contact the PHTLS Coordinator (Domestic U.S.A. regions, Military or International) in your area to inquire of local programs. Having trouble accessing the information? Contact our office at 1.800.94PHTLS, email or from outside the U.S.A., call 601.924.7744.
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How do I sponsor a PHTLS program for my Organization?
Contact the PHTLS Coordinator (Domestic U.S.A., Military or International) in your area or contact the PHTLS International Office.
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How do I go about sponoring a PHTLS program in a State, Province or Country that currently does not offer PHTLS?
Contact Will Chapleau for information on how to develop new PHTLS Coordinator sites.
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