WBAMC medics, nurses assess battlefield care

By Marcy SanchezNovember 29, 2017

WBAMC medics, nurses assess battlefield care
1 / 3 Show Caption + Hide Caption – (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
WBAMC medics, nurses assess battlefield care
2 / 3 Show Caption + Hide Caption – (From left) Spcs. Alyssa Hobbs and Breana Robinson, both combat medics at William Beaumont Army Medical Center's Inpatient Surgical Unit, apply a tourniquet to a simulated casualty during Tactical Combat Casualty Care training at the Medical Simulati... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
WBAMC medics, nurses assess battlefield care
3 / 3 Show Caption + Hide Caption – (From left) Sgt. Deborah Schumm, combat medic, Inpatient Surgical Unit, William Beaumont Army Medical Center and 1st Lt. Kate Abbott, Registered Nurse, Inpatient Surgical Unit, WBAMC, assess and prepare a simulated casualty for treatment during Tacti... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

Soldiers with William Beaumont Army Medical Center's Inpatient Surgical Unit participated in Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TC3) training at the Medical Simulation Training Center (MSTC) at Fort Bliss, Nov. 16.

The hands-on training presented Soldiers with simulated casualties replicating amputations and complex injuries.

"The MSTC teaches everybody Basic Life Support (BLS), Combat Lifesaver Course, medic certification tables and IFAK (Improved First Aid Kit) class; they teach trauma basically," said Staff Sgt. Rodney Hardwick, noncommissioned officer in charge, Inpatient Surgical Unit, WBAMC. "The course provides the training to know how to treat a patient from the point of injury to sustaining a patient afterward."

The MSTC employs mechanical mannequins that replicate movements of combat casualties to include fake blood to simulate injuries. Soldiers were tasked with applying techniques learned during training to stop the bleeding and stabilize the mannequins.

"I definitely like (the training)," said Spc. Samuel Scott, combat medic, Inpatient Surgical Unit, WBAMC. "These injuries are stuff you can experience just driving, if you run into a car accident (and need to assist a casualty)."

For some WBAMC Soldiers, the training provided a refresher to battlefield medicine training they received during Advanced Individual Training (AIT).

"Outside of the course, there's not a lot of training for (point of injury care)," said Hardwick. "That used to be a big part of our scope."

The training offers Soldiers front line experiences to medical responses differing from patient care operations at WBAMC, where operations and treatment are more controlled and structured.

"My scope of practice is limited at the hospital," said Scott, a native of Modesto, California, whose daily routines image that of a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA). "(At the MSTC) or in a combat unit you practice this stuff every day, you're the medic and the doc."

During the training, Soldiers went over equipment, tourniquet application, pressure-dressing inguinal wounds, treating sucking chest wounds and nasopharyngeal airways (NPA).

"That's part of readiness, the ability to provide first-aid and self-aid," said Hardwick, a native of Farmer City, Illinois. "If (Soldiers) see a (U.S. Army Medical Command unit patch) or know you're medical (personnel) then you're expected to be a (Subject-Matter Expert) on it.

Scott was one of about 15 Soldiers going through the training. For the Soldiers, the refresher training also increased the unit's readiness and capability to augment units requiring medical personnel.

"There might be a need for nurses in the future to serve in an expanded capability that they are not used to serving in," said Hardwick. "Everybody is theoretically supposed to be on the same playing field so we'll train (WBAMC Soldiers) on the same playing field."