NAEMT Trauma-Focused Course Series

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 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.
Although PHTLS originated in the United States, it has evolved and now serves as an international education program available to EMS providers in countries around the world.

Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (TECC)

Developed by NAEMT’s Prehospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS) Committee, the TECC program is based on the guidelines from the Committee on Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (Co-TECC) and the Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) program. TECC uses lessons learned from our military and applies them to the civilian world of tactical medicine.

This 16-hour course covers topics designed to decrease preventable death in the tactical situation. Topics include: Hemorrhage control; surgical airway control and needle decompression; strategies for treating wounded responders in threatening environments; caring for pediatric patients; and techniques for dragging and carrying victims to safety.

At the core of the TECC program are three distinct phases that have been well-proven by TCCC-trained personnel in the war against terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan. The phases are as follows:

• Direct Threat Care
• Care that is rendered while under attack or in adverse conditions.

• Indirect Threat Care
• Care that is rendered while the threat has been suppressed, but may resurface at any point.

• Evacuation
• Care that is rendered while the casualty is being evacuated from the incident site.

TECC focuses on the medicine during these phases of care and provides guidelines for managing trauma in the civilian tactical or hazardous environment. While TECC has a tactical slant, it takes an all-hazards approach to providing care outside the normal operating conditions of most EMS agencies, such as responding to a mass casualty or active shooter event.

TECC For Law Enforcement Officers and First Responders (TECC-LEO)

8-hour course specifically designed for non-EMS first responders. The course covers materials found in the 16-hour provider course at a level appropriate for first responders. Topics include hemorrhage control, rescue tactics, and scenario-based training. Upon successful completion of the course, students receive a certificate of completion, a wallet card recognizing them as a TECC-LEO provider for 4 years, and 8 hours of CAPCE credit.

The course combines the principles of PHTLS and Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC), with the training provided to military medics by all branches of our Armed Services. It is consistent with the Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (TECC) guidelines, and meets the recommendations of the Hartford Consensus Document on Improving Survival from Active Shooter Events.


Course participants will learn life-saving medical actions such as bleeding control with a tourniquet, bleeding control with gauze packs or topical hemostatic agents, and opening an airway to allow a casualty to breathe.

Upon completion of the course participants will:

• Understand the rationale for immediate steps for hemorrhage control (including external hemorrhage control, direct pressure and wound packing, early use of tourniquet for severe hemorrhage, internal hemorrhage control by rapid evacuation, and transportation to major hospital/trauma center.
• Demonstrate the appropriate application of a tourniquet to the arm and leg.
• Describe the progressive strategy for controlling hemorrhage.
• Describe appropriate airway control techniques and devices.
• Demonstrate the correct application of a topical hemostatic dressing (combat gauze).
• Recognize the tactically relevant indicators of shock.

PHTLS Trauma First Responder

Course Description:  8 hours

The Trauma First Response course is a one-day continuing education course that teaches the principles of Pre-hospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS) to non-EMS practitioners, including first responders, police officers, firefighters, rescue personnel and safety officers. It helps them prepare to care for trauma patients while serving as part of a transport team or awaiting a transport provider.

The course serves up core PHTLS content to those who haven’t had EMT or advanced pre-hospital training. The lectures and practical stations are designed for the type of care first responders can render while awaiting patient transport or when assisting paramedics and EMTs at a trauma scene.

Prerequisites: N/A

Bleeding Control for the Injured (B-Con)

Developed by NAEMT’s PHTLS Committee with leadership provided by Dr. Peter Pons and Dr. Norman McSwain.

The course was developed in response to efforts by the U.S. Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services to increase collaboration between law enforcement, the fire service and EMS in responding to active shooter/IED/mass casualty events. B-Con is consistent with the recommendations of the Hartford Consensus on Improving Survival from Active Shooter Events. The Hartford Consensus recommends that an integrated active shooter response should include the critical actions contained in the acronym THREAT:

1. Threat
2. Hemorrhage control
3. Rapid Extrication to safety
4. Assessment by medical providers
5. Transport to definitive care

The Hartford Consensus Group recommends that the response to a traumatic incident, whether involving an active shooter or some other cause of injury, in fact begins with bystander response. It is with this in mind that the B-Con course was developed and is now being offered.

This new 2 ½ hour course teaches participants the basic life-saving medical interventions, including bleeding control with a tourniquet, bleeding control with gauze packs or topical hemostatic agents, and opening an airway to allow a casualty to breathe. The course is designed for NON tactical law enforcement officers, firefighters, security personnel, teachers and other civilians requiring this basic training. Course materials include a PowerPoint presentation and instructor notes, instructor’s guide, and skill station guide.

A separate, additional PowerPoint module is included in the course materials specifically for law enforcement participants. This module provides an orientation to the content of the Hartford Consensus and the changing approach to active shooter and other complex and hazardous responses.

At the completion of the course, participants will be able to:

• Explain the rationale for early use of a tourniquet for life-threatening extremity bleeding.
• Demonstrate the appropriate application of a tourniquet to the arm and leg.
• Describe the progressive strategy for controlling hemorrhage.
• Describe appropriate airway control techniques and devices.

Demonstrate the correct application of a topical hemostatic dressing (combat gauze).

All Hazards Disaster Response

NAEMT's All Hazards Disaster Response (AHDR) course prepares EMS practitioners at all levels to respond to the many types of disaster scenarios they may encounter – floods, tornadoes, terror attacks, etc.

This 8-hour course teaches participants how to analyze potential threats in their area, assess available resources, and create a response plan that will save lives.

Features of a response plan covered in the course include:

• Communicating effectively during disasters.
• Mutual aid and interoperability.
• Managing resources such as supplies, medications and equipment.
• Triage and transportation strategies and challenges.
• Patient tracking and evacuation.