This year marks the 25th year since the introduction of the Advanced Trauma & Life Support (ATLS®) course to Ireland.

Its delivery was formally recognised at the 95th Annual ATLS Global Symposium in March when Mr Fergal Hickey, ATLS National Director received a certificate of acknowledgement for the work and growth of ATLS in Ireland for the preceding years.

The ATLS® course is an American College of Surgeons programme developed by clinicians and educators to teach the principles of early trauma management and enable a standardised language of trauma care across the specialties. It is an intensive course intended to teach a simple, systematic approach to the management of trauma patients through interactive tutorials, skills teaching and simulated patient management scenarios. The course is taught by clinicians who are experienced in trauma care and who have themselves undergone both the ATLS® Provider Course but also a special educational course to optimise their teaching skills.

The course was developed nearly 30 years ago and has been adopted in over 60 countries worldwide. It was first introduced to Ireland and RCSI in 1991 under the Directorship of Professor Niall O’Higgins and will update to the 10th edition of the course in 2018. In Ireland, ATLS is run in RCSI and six regional centres in Dublin, Cork, Drogheda, Kilkenny, Limerick, Sligo.

ATLS has trained 3,590 providers to date in Ireland and has more than 100 regular ATLS instructors who support the delivery of these courses. It continues to be a popular multi-specialty course attended by all levels of NCHDs and consultants in both surgery and emergency medicine.