Juliana Ordoñez1 1Asociacion Colombiana de Cirugia, Capitulo de Trauma y Cuidado Critico, Bogota (Distrito capital), Colombia
Background:
The “Stop the Bleed” campaign, an international initiative aimed at teaching people how to control life-threatening bleeding, faces unique challenges in Colombia and Latin America. Below is an analysis of the challenges and potential solutions for implementing and expanding the campaign in this region and We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of implementing the Stop the Bleed campaign and the association between the instructors background and the theoretical and practical competences achieved by the participants in Colombia and Latin America.Our objectives were: identify barriers to implementation and to evaluate ACS Bleeding Control Basic Courses effectiveness in global health settings.
Methods:
We delivered course to allied EMS and healthcare and medical student providers from Colombia, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Ecuador and Peru. In each training session, we collected baseline information on demographics, and perceptions of tourniquet use. The training had a master class followed by a practical component and a written test, Additionally, we evaluated correct tourniquet use before and after course.
Results:
3473 participants were enrolled: 41.5% were medical doctors and 32% were EMS, 27% medical student. Overall, 19% had previously applied a tourniquet, the main reason for not applying a tourniquet was risk of harm (26.8%). Overall, 29.4% of participants applied the tourniquet correctly before training and 83.1% after. Variables associated with correct tourniquet utilization were: number of trainings [OR¼1.31, CI95%: 1.19-1.45, p
Conclusions:
The Stop the Bleed campaign can be effectively implemented in Latin America, After the training, more than 98% of all participants perceived that they would most likely be capable of aiding correctly a bleeding victim by applying direct pressure and more than 90% of them felt confident in being able to apply a tourniquet.