Trauma team

A Trauma team is a group of healthcare workers who attend to seriously ill or injured casualties who arrive at a hospital emergency department. The team is composed of a number of specific roles, with a typical team consisting of:

• Team Leader - Usually an anesthesiologist, sometimes a general surgeon.
• Anaesthetist - Anaesthetists play a central role in trauma. They manage the patient's airway, monitor vital signs and fluid administration. They also run intensive care units. Due to their extensive skills in trauma and critical care they are usually the doctor who carry out transfers.
• Anaesthetic Assistant
• General Surgeon
• Orthopaedic Surgeon
• Emergency Physician
• Respiratory Therapist
• Two Nurses. (Three if no anaesthetic assistant)
• In some hospitals, EMT or Paramedics are used as technicians for vascular access and lab procedures or microscopic features. In others, a Paramedic may actually take on the same duties as a Nurse, depending on the hospital's policies and state laws (Such as in Tennessee, where in-hospital Paramedics have similar scope to an RN.)
• Radiographer
• Scribe - a technician who records and documents specifics of patient care

Other specialities can be added depending on the nature of the injury, for example a neurosurgeon will attend if there is a serious head injury. All staff should be trained in Advanced Trauma Life Support techniques. Each hospital will have a list of criteria that require the activation of the trauma team, such as a fall of over 6...
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