Clinical Pharmacist University of New Mexico Hospitals Albuquerque, New Mexico
Introduction: Major hemorrhage is a preventable cause of death from traumatic injuries. Hemorrhage control strategies often include wound packing and tourniquet placement. Pharmacists are recognized by the Stop the Bleed campaign as trainers to train laypersons on bleeding control. Pharmacist-led Stop the Bleed training to laypersons have exhibited improved knowledge and willingness to provide life saving interventions. Pharmacy resident orientation programs offer a unique opportunity to identify and train new Stop the Bleed pharmacist trainers. The objective of this analysis was to describe the effectiveness of pharmacy resident-led Stop the Bleed training course on familiarity, comfort, and knowledge before and after training.
Methods: Postgraduate year-2 pharmacy residents were trained to become Stop the Bleed trainers by completing the Stop the Bleed curriculum. The residents then led a Stop the Bleed train-the-trainer session to incoming postgraduate year-1 pharmacy residents during residency orientation. An anonymous survey questionnaire adopted from another published analysis was administered to the residents both before and after the training session. Data collected included participant demographics, familiarity and comfort responding to bleeding emergencies, and basic knowledge of bleeding control techniques. Knowledge of bleeding control and accurate tourniquet placement was assessed with true/false and diagram-based questions. Familiarity and comfort using a tourniquet and responding to hemorrhagic emergencies were assessed on a 5-point likert scale. Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to assess the differences in the pre-post survey results regarding knowledge, familiarity and comfort of bleeding control techniques.
Results: Eight PGY-1 residents completed the training. Compared to baseline, familiarity and comfort with hemorrhage control techniques improved (mean, 1.37/5 vs 3.62/5; p< 0.01), as did knowledge (mean, 3.4/8 vs 7/8; p< 0.02) and tourniquet placement (mean, 2.25/3 vs 3/3; p< 0.02).
Conclusions: Stop the Bleed training showed significant improvements in hemorrhage control familiarity, comfort responding to emergencies, and knowledge of tourniquet and wound packing techniques and should be considered for incorporation into pharmacy resident orientation training curricula.
