Improving Trauma Care Worldwide

Initial Certification

Never taken an ITLS course before?

You’ll get started with ITLS training by earning your ITLS Provider certification. The ITLS Provider course is the cornerstone of the ITLS program, with more than half a million trained since the program’s debut in 1982. ITLS Basic or Advanced Provider certification is required for employment by many agencies and organizations across the United States and worldwide.

You might also choose Pediatric Provider or Access Provider certification in addition to or instead of ITLS Basic or Advanced Provider certification – whatever your specific requirements, ITLS has a certification to help you improve trauma care worldwide.

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What to expect at an ITLS course

The ITLS course is hands-on and intensive. The primary purpose of the ITLS course is to provide students with the fundamental knowledge and experience necessary to get the trauma patient from scene to surgery in the best possible condition. The ITLS course focuses on the skills necessary to recognize mechanisms of injury; perform an organized, time-efficient assessment; prioritize and perform critical interventions; and appropriately package and transport the trauma patient.

A major focus of the course is the identification of conditions that require immediate transport (“load and go”) in order to save the patient. Lifesaving techniques are taught or reviewed in practical exercises. Newly developed equipment is provided, when possible, to allow the students to become familiar with state-of-the-art techniques and equipment.

Although the course is designed for the prehospital phase of EMS, it is also useful to medical students, emergency medicine residents, registered nurses, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants interested in trauma care.