TCAR Programs is an independent nurse-owned and operated business located in Oregon. The TCAR course was created in 2008 by experienced trauma care professionals with extensive teaching experience (see the “About Us” tab for details). The TCAR course is neither owned nor controlled by a specific professional association.

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The TCAR course was conceived to fill a huge gap in post-resuscitation trauma nursing education. Existing standardized nursing courses (e.g., TNCC, ATCN, TNATC) were designed to address trauma patient resuscitation. However, the special needs of trauma patients don’t end at the emergency department doors. Nurses in OR, PACU, ICU, Acute Care, and Rehab settings continue the care of the trauma patient in the days and weeks following injury. In the post-resuscitation phase the focus of care shifts from initial resuscitation to recovery, complication prevention, and reintegration. TCAR specifically targets the educational needs of nurses caring for trauma patients throughout their entire inpatient stay.

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TCAR is designed to give acute care, critical care, and perioperative nurses the foundational, evidence-based information and critical thinking skills necessary to care for the hospitalized trauma patient. The TCAR target audience is nurses (novices or experts) who are fairly new to trauma care and need a "soup-to-nuts" overview of trauma nursing. Nevertheless, even experienced trauma nurses find that TCAR helps synthesize concepts and reinforce information picked up here and there over the years. TCAR is also a welcome change for nurses who have attended other standardized trauma nursing courses multiple times.

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Different trauma centers/systems have very different learning needs. Some organizations make TCAR a mandatory course for inpatient nurses who provide trauma care. Others want to provide continuing education, some need to offer outreach education, and others want a pre-conference for their annual symposium.

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TCAR covers a wide range of pathophysiologic and nursing concepts and is designed to be a broad, core-level program, rather than an advanced or specialty area-specific course.

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TCAR emphasizes content that is specific to trauma patients and relevant to trauma nurses in all practice areas. Many TCAR course attendees are critical care nurses, but the focus of TCAR is on trauma care, rather than critical care. Likewise, TCAR is not a course in operating room nursing, medical-surgical nursing, orthopedic nursing, or rehab nursing; it’s a trauma course for nurses across all practice areas. TCAR does not attempt to replace or replicate information provided in specialty area courses.

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TCAR sets the highest instructor standards in the industry to bring you a top quality program every time. Each TCAR associate is a masters prepared nurse with extensive experience as a trauma educator, program manager, nurse practitioner, or clinical nurse specialist. Our instructors are leaders in their organizations and their professional associations, intimately familiar with the learning needs and concerns of nurses caring for trauma patients in the post-resuscitation phase. In addition, each TCAR associate is a veteran educator, with extensive experience presenting to nursing audiences.

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Day 1 is an introduction to basic topics relevant to the nursing care of the hospitalized trauma patient:

• The trauma continuum of care
• The biomechanics of trauma
• The body’s response to injury
• Assessment of the injured inpatient
• Caring for the patient in shock

On Day 2 learners participate in guided, interactive case studies that address the care of hospitalized patients with injuries to various body regions. Each module is designed to introduce specific trauma care concepts including pathophysiology, assessment modalities, and complications. Surgical, medical, and nursing management options and outcome criteria are presented while discussing patients with:

• Thoracic trauma
• Abdominal trauma
• Musculoskeletal trauma
• Brain trauma
• Spinal cord trauma

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TCAR focuses on topics that are crucial in the post-resuscitation phase of trauma care including: missed injuries, delayed injuries, late complications, sepsis, multiple organ failure, rhabdomyolysis, compartment syndrome, intraabdominal hypertension, wound and skin care, mobilization, nutrition, DVT prophylaxis, alcohol withdrawal, fluid management, chest tube care, staff and patient safety, post-concussion syndrome, and pain management, with a special emphasis on geriatric patients and bariatric patients.

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No. Anyone can claim to provide a “verification” course. There are no legal requirements for choosing to call a course a verification program. However, “verification” suggests participants have undergone some form of testing.

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NO. There is no evidence to support “magic expiration dates”. Nurses do not suddenly become incompetent just because a certain date on a card or a calendar has been reached. Clearly, knowledge and skills require periodic updating and reinforcement, but TCAR Programs does not attempt to determine this date for you. It can quickly become a managerial and staffing nightmare to schedule nurses around arbitrary expiration dates; TCAR will not add to your staffing burden.

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No. A TCAR course is a self-contained program. There is no expectation that learners read a book, practice skills, or complete a pre-test before coming to class.

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Rather than an intimidating $70 textbook that many students bring to class still in the shrink wrap, each TCAR participant is given an extensive color syllabus (150+ pages) on the first day of class. This syllabus allows learners to follow along with the lectures, reinforcing content while providing ample of room for note taking.

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Unlike other trauma nursing courses that may undergo revision every 5 years, TCAR is a dynamic program that is continually updated, revised, and improved based on learner, host, and instructor feedback. All TCAR instructors are experts—practicing in their fields—who are in a position to suggest changes as soon as new evidence and clinical practices become available. This ensures that course content is always current. The TCAR syllabus and slides are modified on a regular basis to keep pace with these changes.

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Because the majority of post-resuscitation trauma nurses never care for pediatric, obstetric, or burn trauma patients, these populations were deliberately excluded from the TCAR course. Nevertheless, most information that applies to adult trauma patients is relevant to the pediatric patient as well and many pediatric nurses have attended TCAR courses. However, due to a number of requests, A PCAR (Pediatric Care After Resuscitation) is currently under development, and is scheduled for release in early 2012.

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Because TCAR is not a pass/fail all-or-nothing course it is possible for learners to attend a single day. However, Day 1 covers core trauma care principles and Day 2 gives learners a chance to apply those principles. Therefore learners miss a lot of synthesis by not attending both days. Nevertheless, we recognize that 2-day attendance is not always possible. There is no mechanism to register for a single day, but learners will sometimes split a course with a colleague, each attending one day.

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No. Similar to many other courses, TCAR Programs does not permit any form of recording or redistribution.

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We can potentially schedule a course with as little as 4 weeks’ notice (depending on instructor availability) but a minimum of 3 months is ideal, largely because most nurses need this much time to put in schedule requests and the hosting organization needs the time to arrange for staff coverage. If you plan to market the course widely to outside participants as part of an outreach education program, then most attendees like at least 6 months’ notice. The longer the lead time, the better your attendance will be. This may be very important if you are looking to keep costs low by taking advantage of the volume discounts.

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Like TNCC or ATCN, TCAR costs are calculated on a per-student basis—but there’s a LOT more flexibility within the TCAR cost model. We designed it that way to allow each organization to select the option that works best for them. Similar to the other courses, the basic TCAR cost is $275/learner, but it goes down from there. Employees of the host facility receive a $25 discount ($250/person). Once the 25 person minimum is surpassed there is a volume discount, and $25 is rebated to the host organization for each additional person who attends, REGARDLESS of whether it’s a host employee or someone from the outside. For courses with more than 50 people, the rebate increases to $50 per additional participant. And, if an organization wants to open the class to outsiders and charge them more than $275 (e.g., $300) then that difference is rebated to the facility as well, all of which significantly lowers the final bill.

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Importantly, TCAR costs and services are all inclusive—there are no hidden or additional fees, which makes budgeting easy. And, because we do most of the work for you, hours of your time or an assistant’s time are not spent on class preparation.

TCAR Education Programs will:

We understand that educational budgets are tight and cost is always a key factor in decision making. We also understand that different trauma centers/systems have very different needs. There are organizations that have educational funds readily available and others that are charged with the mandate to teach, but are given virtually no resources to do so. TCAR’s flexible cost model gives each facility the flexibility to meet their specific circumstances.

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Use the TCAR Cost Calculator (downloaded from the website) to try various scenarios to find which one best meets your budget. Think of what groups of people you would include in a TCAR class (see the category suggestions in yellow in the left column) and then play around with numbers in the other yellow boxes to view how your bottom line cost changes (the big number in black). As you’ll see, the most expensive class is one that has just 25 of your own, fully-subsidized people. By encouraging outside enrollment, asking attendees to pay some portion of their tuition, and by taking advantage of the volume rebates, you can bring your total costs down considerably and your final per-student cost (in blue) will go WAY down. Organizations are often very surprised to find out that MORE attendees can actually cost them less; and that can be a lower TOTAL cost, not just less per person. For example, try the calculator and see what happens if you have 20 non-employees in your class instead of 10.

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The minimum course size is 25 people. However, these do not need to be employees of the sponsoring facility. By designing and printing your brochures, creating an email flier, and posting the class on our website we can help you fill the seats.

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Because there are no breakout sessions involved, there is no course size restriction. In fact, the more the merrier; TCAR’s interactive case studies on Day 2 work very well with larger groups. The highly visual nature of the course makes big-screen auditoriums the perfect venue.

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It can be a major headache just to book one room at most facilities. With TCAR there is no need to find multiple classrooms.

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It is easy to sponsor a TCAR course. All an organization needs to do is:

• Pick the dates and times (A TCAR course is two consecutive 8-hour days e.g., 0800-1600 or 0900-1700). With a minimum of 3 months’ notice we can almost guarantee you an instructor for any dates you choose. However, we may be able to accommodate requests with shorter notice.
• Book a room with an LCD projector, a large projection screen, and a writing surface for each student. (Auditoriums are preferred, no breakout rooms are needed.)
• Spread the word to get an audience of at least 25 students. (We'll help round up outside attendees if your organization doesn't have enough of their own. There is no maximum class size.)
• Arrange for any food or beverages of your choice (or not!)

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TCAR sets the highest instructor standards in the industry. TCAR faculty are all masters prepared nurses who are very familiar with the needs of nurses and patients in the POST-resuscitation phases of care. Each instructor has many years’ experience as a trauma program manager, educator, nurse practitioner, or clinical nurse specialist. Moreover, TCAR faculty are leaders in the field with extensive educational, clinical practice, leadership, and publication experience. TCAR is definitely not a teaching opportunity for novices. Instructors must have the educational experience, trauma care knowledge, energy, and confidence to maintain audience interest for two full days. We choose only top people and treat them accordingly. If this sounds like you, please contact TCAR Programs. We are seeking expert faculty members from around the country.

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TCAR instructors do not teach at their own institutions for a number of reasons designed to protect both instructors and TCAR Programs from conflict of interest issues.

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Whatever portion of the tuition charges you choose to have learners individually contribute is collected at the time students register. This amount is entirely up to YOU, and can vary from $0 to $300+. Participants register on the TCAR website and can pay with a credit card or check. Any portion of the tuition costs the hosting organizations chooses to pay will be invoiced within days of course completion. Payment to TCAR Programs is due in 30 days.

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Click here to contact us with more questions

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