RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the attitude of some Nigerian surgical residents to trauma care. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: Surgical residents from three tertiary care facilities located in South Western Nigeria completed a structured questionnaire, which contained twelve questions directed at eliciting their attitude to trauma care. RESULTS: Fifty-four residents completed the questionnaire. Majority of them were males (88.9%) and aged =30 years (96.3%). Over half (55.6%) were junior residents and one third each had stayed for <2 years, >2-4 years and >4 years respectively in training. Specialties represented included Oral and maxillofacial surgery, General surgery, Orthopaedic surgery, Ophthalmology, Otorhinolaryngology, Urology and Cardio thoracic unit. Only 9.3% and 13.0% of them had received training in the ACLS and ATLS respectively. However, most trainees displayed moderate (42.6%) to major (46.3%) interest in care of the injured judging by the time in future practice hoped to be dedicated to trauma care. Most trainees considered trauma care a rewarding, gratifying and essential aspect of all surgeons practice. At the same time, majority felt it is stressful, time consuming and disrupts a lot of routine activities. CONCLUSION: The studied group displayed a high level of interest in the care of the injured and willingness to devote quality time to this despite the fact that trauma care was considered stressful and time consuming. A need to review our training curriculum to ensure that ATLS and ACLS are incorporated early in the training was observed.
