The Initial Trauma Care for Nurses (ITCN)

The care of the injured is a team effort. In that team, nurses play an essential role. In a larger hospital with ample resources, one can have an ideal team size, but most hospitals in Sri Lanka do not fall into that category. Hence, the arrangements should be made locally to give the best to the patient with available resources.

The Initial Trauma Care for Nurses (ITCN) course, conducted by the College of Surgeons of Sri Lanka (CSSL), is a premier one-day intensive program designed to equip nurses with essential skills in early trauma management. This is a highly specialised course for the early management of trauma patients.

The objective of the course is to acquire basic knowledge and skills in the following areas. Basic trauma management with available resources in any hospital in Sri Lanka, and achieving basic knowledge to identify and arrange equipment and items required for various emergency procedures. Achieving skills in immobilisation, monitoring and transport are also highlighted.

It was launched after the National Trauma Management Course in 2010, and to date, 2309 nursing officers have been trained. The programme coordinator is Dr Ranjith Ellawala, and 60 nursing officers are occupied per course.