Impact of Trauma Resuscitation Emergency Care Nurse Deployment in Trauma Activations in a Rural Trauma Center

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Although the role of a dedicated trauma nurse has been implemented in an urban setting, it has not been studied in the rural trauma setting. We instituted a trauma resuscitation emergency care (TREC) nurse role to respond to trauma activations at our rural trauma center. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to determine the impact of TREC nurse deployment on the timeliness of resuscitation interventions in trauma activations. METHODS: This pre- and postintervention study at a rural Level I trauma center compared the time to resuscitation interventions before (August 2018 to July 2019) and after (August 2019 to July 2020) deploying TREC nurses to trauma activations. RESULTS: A total of 2,593 participants were studied, of which 1,153 (44%) were in the pre-TREC group and 1,440 (56%) in the post-TREC group. After TREC deployment, the median (interquartile range [IQR]) emergency department times within the first hour decreased from 45 (31.23–53) to 35 (16–51) min (p = .013). The median (IQR) time to the operating room within the first hour decreased from 46 (37–52) to 29 (12–46) min (p = .001), and within the first 2 hr, decreased from 59 (43.8–86) to 48 (23–72) min (p = .014). CONCLUSION: Our study found that TREC nurse deployment improved resuscitation intervention timeliness during the first 2 hr (early phase) of trauma activations.