FERIZAJ, Kosovo - Kosovo Security Force soldiers graduated from a First Responder train-the-trainer course at a ceremony held at Camp Skenderbue Oct. 25.
Soldiers from Multinational Battle Group-East's Task Force Medical led the 5-day course designed to teach the critical life-saving skills needed when responding to a medical emergency while also teaching the students to train and certify their own soldiers in future courses.
"The train-the-trainer course is a force multiplier," said U.S. Army Sgt. Alberta Ashong, the course's lead instructor and a native of Lanham, Md. "It gives them the opportunity to really reinforce the information they know and also to make it easier for them to teach [the course] themselves."
The culminating event for the program was a practical exercise that increased the stress levels of the soldiers to see how they would react when responding to a medical emergency.
"We had a live scenario for them, kind of like a real life situation in order to see how they do with the hands on skills we taught them over the week," said U.S. Army Spc. Tiffany Kolmerten, a medic with TF Med from Fort Wayne, Ind. "We threw a couple of some of the harder wounds at them and they were able to treat them pretty well."
To increase the stress levels for the practical exercise, the students had to run laps and do pushups beforehand to elevate their heart rates. They then entered a blacked out room, having to rely solely on a headlamp to see, with gunfire and explosions blaring out from a stereo.
KSF Sgt. Besart Kasumi, a KSF Training and Doctrine Command instructor, said the practical exercise was the best part of the course.
"The stressful environment they created and the scenarios were great and I think it was the best part of the whole training," Kasumi said through an interpreter.
After all the students had gone through the exercise the students went though the scenarios a second time, this time with the students evaluating other students to ensure they were ready to teach future First Responder Courses.
"We threw a portion at the end and had them train each other through the scenarios so they can learn the skills and train their own forces as well," said Kolmerten.
Ashong said she really enjoyed working with the KSF soldiers and was impressed with their enthusiasm.
"They were very eager students," said Ashong. "They came with different medical backgrounds so they came with the opportunity to learn and the willingness and eagerness to learn, so it was really easy to teach them."
Kasumi said the course was especially important because they know have the ability and knowledge to train and certify their own soldiers, becoming more self-sustainable.
"In the future we can now do our own training for our own soldiers," said Kasumi. "I believe we can do it. There is still much work to be done but as far as training others, I think we are confident in doing that in the future."
NATO declared the KSF fully operational in July of 2013. Their mission is to conduct civil protection operations and to assist civil authorities in responding to natural disasters and other emergencies. KSF tasks include search and rescue operations; explosive ordnance disposal; control and clearance of hazardous materials; fire-fighting and other humanitarian assistance tasks.
Social Sharing