Attrition of Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) Skills Among ATLS Instructors and Providers in Mexico
Bibliographic record
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Mexico has had the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) program since 1986. We assessed the attrition of ATLS skills among ATLS providers and instructors in this country. STUDY DESIGN: Three groups (S, 16 students [new medical graduates enrolled for an ATLS course]; P, 33 providers; and I, 26 instructors [who had completed courses previously]) were evaluated. Group S read the manual before pretesting. Groups P and I were subdivided based on the length of time since the course had been completed: P1, less than 2 years (n = 22); P2, more than 2 years (n = 11); I1, less than 2 years (n = 16); and I2, more than 2 years (n = 10). Multiple-choice and psychomotor testing using ATLS scoring criteria were used. Affect was assessed post-ATLS for motivational factors, interactivity, and attitude toward trauma care. RESULTS: Multiple-choice test scores (means +/- SD) out of a maximum of 40 were as follows: S, 24.3 +/- 2.6; P1, 24.0 +/- 5.7; P2, 21.3 +/- 8.0; I1, 23.2 +/- 8.2; and I2, 24.0 +/- 7.2. Group S all passed the post-ATLS multiple-choice test (with correct answer percentages of 60.3% +/- 6.6% pre-ATLS versus 88.8% +/- 5.6% post-ATLS). An ATLS passing score of 80% correct answers was achieved in 2 of 33 for group P and 8 of 26 for group I (p < 0.05), with no statistically significant differences between groups P1 and P2 or between groups I1 and I2. For the psychomotor skills testing component, 5 of 16 in the S group passed, 15 of 22 in P1 passed, 9 of 11 in P2 passed, 14 of 16 in I1 passed, and 6 of 10 in I2 passed. The pass rate was significantly lower in the S pre-ATLS group than in the P and I groups (p < 0.05, Fisher's exact test). More than 60% preferred interactive components and enrolled for professional improvement, and more than 90% reported improved post-ATLS attitude to trauma care. CONCLUSIONS: Reading the manual alone yields similar cognitive but inferior psychomotor performance compared with subjects who completed the course previously. The majority of previous providers and instructors did not obtain a passing score (80%) in the multiple-choice test, but all the new providers passed the post-ATLS multiple-choice test, suggesting major attrition of cognitive skills but maintenance of psychomotor skills. Instructors had superior cognitive performance versus providers with worsening performance over time, but clinical skills performance was maintained at an equally high level by all groups. A very positive attitude toward ATLS prevailed among all participants.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.003 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".