NAEMT's Prehospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS) is recognized around the world as the leading continuing education program for prehospital emergency trauma care. The mission of PHTLS is to promote excellence in trauma patient management by all providers involved in the delivery of prehospital care.

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PHTLS courses improve the quality of trauma care and decrease mortality. The program is based on a philosophy stressing the treatment of the multi-system trauma patient as a unique entity with specific needs. PHTLS promotes critical thinking as the foundation for providing quality care. It is based on the belief that, given a good fund of knowledge and key principles, EMS practitioners are capable of making reasoned decisions regarding patient care. The course utilizes the internationally recognized PHTLS textbook and covers the following topics:

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• Physiology of life and death

• Scene assessment

• Patient assessment

• Airway

• Breathing, ventilation and oxygenation

• Circulation, hemorrhage and shock

• Patient simulations

• Traumatic injuries

  • Head trauma

  • Spinal trauma

  • Thoracic trauma

  • Abdominal trauma

  • Musculoskeletal trauma

  • Treatment of burns

• Special populations

  • Geriatric trauma

  • Pediatric trauma

  • Environmental emergencies

  • Pregnancy

  • Patients with disabilities