Prehospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS)

Overview

Prehospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS) is the world’s premier prehospital trauma education developed in cooperation with the American College of Surgeons to promote critical thinking in addressing multi-system trauma and provide the latest evidence-based treatment practices.

The mission of PHTLS is to promote excellence in trauma patient management by all providers involved in the delivery of prehospital care through global education.  PHTLS is developed by NAEMT in cooperation with the American College of Surgeons’ Committee on Trauma. The Committee provides the medical direction and content oversight for the PHTLS program. 

PHTLS courses improve the quality of trauma care in your area and decrease mortality. The program is based on a prehospital trauma care philosophy, stressing the treatment of the multi-system trauma patient as a unique entity with specific needs. This may require an approach to the trauma patient that varies from traditional treatment modalities. 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 PHTLS course is continuously updated and revised to keep up with the advances in the field, ATLS Guidelines and feedback from PHTLS participants.

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