ATCN/ATLS

[musherdeb]

has anyone taken this course? i am considering it but wanted to know if it actually helped you. i am an ER nurse and want to increase my knowledge base as i get ready to study and take CEN/PCEN

please answer if you have taken this course. thanks so much

[chare]

i have never taken advanced trauma care for nurses (atcn) so am unable to discuss the rn skills stations; however i have audited atls and found the lectures to be excellent and much more informative than the tncc lectures. if you are interested in taking an atcn course, course information is available on the society of trauma nursesevent calendar site.

if you are unable to locate an atcn course that is convenient, you might be able to audit atls at no charge if you are willing to be a "victim" for the final evaluation. while audits are technically not allowed to participate in any of the skills stations or take the final test, some sites do not strictly adhere to this. if you are interested in auditing atls you should be able to get contact information using the atls course lookup screen.

the emergency nurses association also sponsors catn - course in advanced trauma nursing. while i have not taken this course, nurses that i have spoken with who have state that it is much more advanced than tncc. if you are interested in taking this course, you can locate a class through ena's state councils and chapters site.

do not overlook some of the prehospital courses either. the current version of prehospital trauma life support (phtls) is an excellent program. aside from the fact that the skills stations are geared to the prehospital environment, i think the content is comparable to what you would received in tncc. i am not familiar with the current version of international trauma life support (itls), however in the past when i was teaching both, the programs were very similar, and i would presume that this holds true still.

i hope that this information was helpful, and good luck on your cen and cpen.