Global Emergency Care Skills. Does it work?

Introduction: Global Emergency Care Skills (GECS) is a non-profit voluntary organisation founded in 2008 with a core objective of providing emergency care and trauma skills training to doctors and nurses in countries where Emergency Medicine is a developing speciality. This is accomplished through the provision of skills based courses in trauma care, resuscitation skills and major incident management. Since its foundation, GECS has run its course in Kenya, Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania. Methods: We sought to establish the effectiveness of the training courses in a rigorous quantitative manner. We measured the participant’s core knowledge and improvement therein by comparing the results of pre-course and post-course multiple choice questionnaire exams. Results: We performed Student’s t-test of pre- and post-course results. The mean improvement in percentage terms across candidates from Zambia, Malawi, and Tanzania was 11.41%, 28.00%, and 23.22% respectively. This multi-national improvement reached statistical significance at p < 0.005 at all centres. None of the 95% confidence intervals for the difference between pre- and post-course scores crossed (or even approached) zero. This difference was also significant when all countries were combined. Discussion: Comparison of results in each country separately and cumulatively demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in participant’s knowledge after completing a Global Emergency Care Skills course. This improvement mirrors the qualitative improvement in psychomotor skills, knowledge and attitudes seen in candidates who participated in the course