Trauma Tertiary Survey: Trauma Service Medical Officers and Trauma Nurses Detect Similar Rates of Missed Injuries.

BACKGROUND: Trauma tertiary surveys (TTSs) can improve patient outcomes by identifying missed injuries following initial trauma reception and resuscitation. Most TTSs are conducted by medical officers despite the multidisciplinary team approach of modern trauma care.

OBJECTIVE: The study aim was to assess the accuracy of detecting missed injuries when the TTS was performed by specialist trauma nursing staff, rather than trauma service medical officers (TSMOs).

METHODS: A prospective, convenience sample of adult trauma patients admitted to a tertiary trauma center and attended by the trauma service between October 2015 and August 2018 was obtained. For this sample, a TTS was completed by both the TSMO and the trauma nurse (TN). The number of radiological investigations ordered and missed injuries identified were compared between the two clinicians. Additional injuries were graded using the Clavien-Dindo system.

RESULTS: The study sample consisted of 165 patients with a dual TTS, for which at least one team member requested 35 additional radiological investigations. There was fair agreement (κ = 0.36) between the TN and the TSMO in requesting additional radiological investigations. Ten missed injuries were identified by TN-initiated review (n = 24), and 4 missed injuries were identified by TSMO-initiated review (n = 21). Injuries identified following TTSs ranged in severity grading from 0 to 3.

CONCLUSIONS: Performance of the TN on the TTS in the identification of missed injuries is similar to that of the TSMO. Trauma nurses use an appropriate and rationalized approach to ordering additional radiological investigations and contribute a valuable addition to trauma patient care.