What was a very busy summer has continued into the fall and winter months for Trauma Nova Scotia, with more projects (and people) being added to our program in late 2022 and early 2023.

On October 17^th, we officially launched our Inpatient Trauma Consult Service at the QEII. Trauma RNs and Physicians have been working with inpatient teams to optimize and standardize trauma patients' care across many units at the Halifax Infirmary and the Victoria General Hospital. In this edition of our newsletter, we share initial feedback from practitioners, families, and patients about our service. We have initiated a longitudinal 2-minute survey and successfully collected hundreds of responses in the first three months of the service. We are also closely tracking trauma patient outcomes and will share this with stakeholders to ensure everyone is updated on our progress.

Our Trauma Program Webinar Series is once again up and running, with almost 200 practitioners joining us monthly as we have local and national experts update us on best trauma care practices. Advance Trauma Life Support (ATLS) courses are in full swing with multiple offerings this year. Our Provincial Education Lead, Breanne Gillis, and our Medical Director of Education, Dr. Adam Harris, have been very busy planning a new Provincial Education Program. Dates will be announced later this month for Regional sites in the province, with the aim to visit them all in the next year.

Site visits in the Western Zone were finished prior to the Christmas break, and we will be traveling to other zones once we hit the spring weather. The perspectives that we receive from visiting regional and community hospitals are helping to capture what the current Trauma System in Nova Scotia needs on a provincial scope. We anticipate there will be many opportunities to standardize and improve care in all centers, and we look forward to hearing from local experts.

2023 will be an exciting year for our team, and we are happy to have our partners in Nova Scotia alongside us, dedicated to improving Trauma Care in Nova Scotia.

Sincerely,

Dan Cashen, Director/Co-Lead

Robert Green, Senior Medical Director

NS Health Trauma Program            

Welcome to our New TTLs

o Ryan Henneberry: Dr. Henneberry has been an emergency medicine (EM) physician in Halifax since 2004. He is the founder and director of Emergency and Critical Care Ultrasound (ECCU) Halifax, as well as the CCFP(EM) Program Director for Dalhousie Family Medicine.

o Laura Wade: Dr. Wade is an emergency medicine (EM) physician who joins us from Ontario and brings experience in trauma care from when she held the role of Resident Trauma Team Leader (rTTL) as part of her EM training. She is also an advocate for physician wellness and has experience working in not only Halifax, but also at the Valley Regional and Hants Community hospitals.

Special Thanks to Outgoing TTLs

o Chad Coles: Dr. Coles is a recognized national leader in orthopedic trauma care and has been a TTL since 2004. Although he is stepping away from the TTL role, Dr. Coles will continue to be an integral member of our team, managing complex orthopedic trauma care.

o Janet MacIntyre: Dr. MacIntyre joined our group in 2011 but is stepping away from the TTL role after 11 successful years. We look forward to continuing to collaborate with her to optimize care for our major trauma patients at the QEII.

Nova Scotia Health continues to provide trauma-related educational opportunities for healthcare professionals across Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and PEI.

The interdisciplinary trauma webinar series continues to provide monthly virtual education. Webinars in November and January were attended by hundreds of healthcare providers from a variety of disciplines across the province, including NB and PEI. A recording of all webinars is posted on the TNS website for viewing as well.

ATLS Courses continue to be offered and are well-attended. Upcoming courses in March and May are full. An upcoming course in June does have available seats. These ATLS courses have drawn attendance from Quebec, Ontario, and the Maritimes. Fall ATLS dates will be announced soon.

Trauma Nova Scotia is currently in the beginning stages of developing a provincial trauma course to offer to healthcare providers of multiple disciplines across the province, in regional and community hospitals. Trauma Nova Scotia identifies and recognizes that there has been a gap in the availability and accessibility of in-person simulated learning over the past 4 years. We are excited to bring an interactive, and simulation-based Trauma Course to healthcare providers across the province.

Regularly scheduled Trauma Simulation at the QEII ED has resumed. rTTL Bootcamps are available for Residents specializing in Emergency Medicine and General Surgery.

Our Nova Scotia Trauma Registry (NSTR) captures data on all major traumas from hospitals across the province and from the NS Medical Examiner Service. 

The information gathered in the registry is used for surveillance, research, and to improve the quality of patient care.

For more information or to submit a data request, contact NSTR Coordinator Karen Ssebazza at nstrauma@nshealth.ca

Ongoing Research Activities

Trauma Nova Scotia will be presenting 7 research studies at the Trauma Association of Canada (TAC) 2023 Annual Scientific Meeting and Conference to be held at the Westin Edmonton Hotel on April 20-21. These studies include epidemiological research involving data collected from the Nova Scotia Trauma Registry on burn-related major trauma, pediatric major trauma, and rural trauma in Nova Scotia. We are also presenting research on the newly implemented Trauma Consult Service at the QEII, injury outcomes across Canadian trauma systems, and definitions for sex, gender, race and ethnicity in Canadian trauma registries.

Other research activities currently in progress include a survey of burnout among Trauma Team Leaders and members of the Trauma Consult Service following implementation of the QEII Trauma Consult Service, as well as a quality survey of satisfaction with the care provided by the Trauma Consult Service. Later this year, we will start evaluating the outcomes of trauma patients admitted to the QEII before and after implementation of the Trauma Consult Service.

We are continuing to work on local research projects investigating pediatric major trauma, traumatic cardiac arrest, ATV-related trauma, and rural trauma in Nova Scotia. We are also collaborating with Dr. Alexa Yakubovich from the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology at Dalhousie University on a health system study of the Interprovincial Violence Against Women (IPV) Project.