England Football Learning launch ground-breaking Paediatric ATMMiF-R course at St George’s Park

This month, England Football Learning facilitated a Paediatric ATMMif-R course (Advanced Trauma Medical Management in Football – Reaccreditation), a first-of-its-kind within the world of sport for medical training targeted at responding to trauma incidents within youth football settings. The day-long course was delivered by England Football Learning tutors and attended by fifteen health care professionals, from Premier League, Women’s Super League, and EFL clubs and the England Pathway, all of whom have already completed their ATMMiF qualification.

The ATMMIF course is the highest available qualification within England Football Learning’s medical pathway, with the certificate lasting three years and requiring an annual refresher to maintain skill levels. These courses are aimed at adding to people’s advanced immediate care skills and giving people experience that will allow them to act as the primary care provider in the sports, pre-hospital environment of football. The courses help develop essential core and extended skills through a series of skill rapid practice scenarios and formative assessments.

England Football Learning created the Paediatric ATMMiF-R course to reconsolidate prior learning, whilst showing that children cannot be considered as ‘little adults’; they differ physically, physiologically and psychologically throughout their developing years and demand a different approach to serious injuries and illnesses. This stand-alone course refreshes the knowledge and skills necessary for recognition and effective treatment and stabilisation of any child player presenting with a life-threatening emergency – the course is just one example of all the work England Football Learning are already doing in the paediatric space.

The contents of the paediatric ATMMiF-R course were designed to teach, practice, and refine candidates’ practical clinical skills. During the day-long course, England Football Learning put on lectures and sessions to help the candidates recognise the differences to treating children compared to adults. The candidates were split into three groups and participated in various rotations, where each group were given role-play scenarios to test their ability to improvise and innovate with adult equipment to treat child-sized mannequins – a situation many of these candidates could likely normally face at their clubs.

England Football Learning place a high importance on duty of care to children across the country. The aim of this course was to help candidates reflect on their pre-existing knowledge and help them assess whether they and their club are fully prepared to deliver life-saving interventions for children, whilst equally making sure candidates determine whether they have the right equipment at their clubs to deal with these situations. The hope is that the fifteen candidates will return to their clubs and share all their newly acquired learning with their colleagues so they can put the necessary steps in place and purchase the right equipment to prepare for potential worst-case scenarios for the age groups that they manage.

Lead Tutor of the Paediatric ATMMiF-R course, Mark Woolcock, said: “Delivering this ground-breaking course has been an important step to raising awareness of the different aspects and challenges of treating a child in a serious situation, compared to an adult. It has been fantastic to see all learners fully engage with this course; it has given them an opportunity to reflect on their pre-existing knowledge of treating adults and take away our pieces of advice for dealing with children. I am positive that this course will be a building block for the future and will allow each candidate to return to their clubs and ensure they have the necessary equipment to best prepare themselves for emergency situations.”

England Women’s Pathway Medical Lead, Harriet Collins, added: “Attending the first-ever Paediatric ATMMiF-R course has opened my eyes to the various important factors we must consider when assessing, managing, and treating a child in a serious or life-threatening situation. In my current field, we are now rolling out medical teams to talent pathways and dealing with children of much younger ages, so this course has given me a new perspective on how to manage emergency situations with children. All of today’s lectures and workstations have provided me with new pieces of information that I will share with my fellow England practitioners to benefit us as a team when preparing for and faced with these scenarios.”