Creation and validation of a roadside rescue skills scale for training pre-hospital medical teams: the RoadRes-Q scale.

Abstract

Background: Road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death among young people worldwide. While advances in vehicle safety have reduced some of the risks, the speed and quality of pre-hospital care are critical to prevent fatalities. In France, patients are cared for by medical teams and firefighters who must work together as closely as possible to ensure the best possible survival rate. However, there is a lack of standardised scales to assess the performance of these multidisciplinary teams. This study aimed to create and validate a roadside rescue skills assessment scale, the RoadRes-Q scale, for healthcare teams.

Methods: We used a two-round Delphi method to develop the RoadRes-Q scale. A panel of 9 international roadside rescue experts, including 7 firefighters and 2 engineers in road rescue equipment, agreed to participate. The scale covers five key areas: healthcare provider protection, site securing, vehicle securing, first aid delivery, and patient extrication. The final version was tested during two one-day simulation-based training sessions, each involving 22 participants: 6 healthcare staff, 14 firefighters, and 2 simulated victims. Assessors completed the scale during and after each scenario, focusing on internal consistency and inter-observer reliability.

Results: The RoadRes-Q scale consists of 60 items. Internal consistency was excellent (Cronbach's alpha of 0.86), indicating that items were non-redundant and consistently measured the required competencies. However, inter-observer reliability was low (intra-class correlation coefficient of 0.48), suggesting variability between assessors. Satisfaction among participants to the simulation-based training courses was high, and their knowledge increased.

Conclusions: The RoadRes-Q scale proved to be a valid and reliable scale for evaluating both technical and non-technical skills. While internal consistency was strong, improvements are needed in inter-observer reliability. Structured training for assessors and video-based assessments could enhance reproducibility. The RoadRes-Q scale has the potential for assessing the quality and safety of care provided by healthcare teams in roadside rescue situations.

Registration: As the study did not involve interventional research or patient participation, ethics committee approval was not required, but it received approval from the scientific referents of the Faculty of Medicine of Poitiers, and participants provided informed consent for using their anonymised data.