Nurses' role in the Joint Theater Trauma System.

Nurses' role within the Joint Theater Trauma System's trauma performance improvement program spans the entire trauma continuum. Nurses serve as trauma nurse coordinators at combat zone medical treatment facilities, flight nurses within the US Air Force Aeromedical Evacuation system, multidisciplinary trauma teams at overseas and stateside military and Veterans Affairs healthcare organizations, and members on trauma video teleconferences. Many of the trauma performance improvement initiatives that have occurred since the Joint Theater Trauma System inception have been led by nurses serving within the trauma continuum and resulted in successful outcomes for patients with polytrauma.