Photo By Ashley Roy | Lt. j.g. Laura Cargill and Senior Chief Petty Officer William Lewis, Provincial...... read more read more
ENDINBURGH, Ind. - Provincial Reconstruction Team 13-17, currently training at Atterbury-Muscatatuck near Edinburgh, Ind., is preparing for deployment to Afghanistan later this year.
Consisting of three teams, the PRT is training to support missions in the Farah, Ghazni and Uruzgan provinces, including medical support.
With a life expectancy of 62 and only eight percent of the gross domestic product in Afghanistan being allocated to healthcare according to the World Health Organization’s country statistical profiles of 2011, there is a need for improved medical care in country.
A large part of training for this mission includes combat lifesaver training, medical logistics and documentation, sustainment training and learning about culture-specific medical protocol.
The 4th Cavalry Brigade of Fort Knox, Ky., is providing much of the training with a focus on mission-specific exercises.
“We ask our trainer mentors to find out what missions are going on, what projects they’re doing and what’s transitioning over [in Afghanistan]. We try to gather what is currently going on in theatre because the biggest thing is making sure they’re prepared,” said Capt. Rachael Gabbard, Brigade Medical Operations Officer and HHD Commander, 4th Cavalry Brigade.
A PRT is an initiative whose stated objectives include extending the influence of the Afghan government outside Kabul, encouraging international and non-governmental organizations to operate in rural areas outside of Kabul and facilitating reconstruction, according to the Department of Defense.
This PRT is unique because it is the last one, all deploying troops are sailors and soldiers, and all of the medical providers are female.
In the past, troops serving the PRT medical mission have focused on developing clinics and providing medical care to the Afghan people. With the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan beginning, this PRT rotation will focus not so much on medical treatment, but giving control over to the Afghan officials and helping them to develop their own health practices, said Lt. j.g. Ashley Deriemacker, PRT 13-17, Ghazni province.
According to Gabbard, frequency and variety are important for medical training. With most PRTs training anywhere from four to six months, it is important for their medical skills to stay current, and for them to work and build on their knowledge.
“Most units they come here and they focus on collective training, individual training and then they deploy. We try to continue to involve the medical piece wherever we can,” said Gabbard.
The troops undergo weekly sustainment training, allowing them to work as a team in different medical areas, and are given specialized classes on occasion such as emergency obstetrics taught by an Army midwife from Fort Knox.
“We help them to continue to work and build on their skills because some of them aren’t necessarily used to combat medicine,” said Gabbard.
One of Deriemacker’s favorite training pieces is the mass casualty training because they are able to apply all they have learned in one scenario.
“Hopefully we won’t have to utilize it, but it’s nice when the pieces work together,” said Deriemacker.
The other side of the training focuses on understanding Afghan health practices and medical administration.
The medics and providers have undergone medical systems training used in down range operations, one for medical logistics such as ordering supplies and one for medical documentation, and have keyed in on medical advising and sustainable projects they can assist with, said Gabbard.
“There are some areas, like in Farah, where they currently have a project going on; a maternal infant care program, that the province would like to keep, and they’re going to be working on transitioning that program on to the Afghan populace and letting them assist in that project,” said Gabbard.
To aid with transition, the Afghan Health Sector class covered how the Afghan medical industry is set up, how people get pharmaceuticals and how they are distributed, as well as how doctors there are trained. The medical culture has been a large focus as well.
“The PRT medical staff needs to be versed in the way we treat down range as opposed to how we treat in our clinics here,” said Deriemacker.
Gabbard said it’s important for the PRTs to be well trained because they’re the first line personnel to actually treat their fellow counterparts.
“We hope to build confidence in their abilities and ensure they are qualified to go down range and have no issues with conducting treatment, being able to sustain life or even advise the provincial government,” said Gabbard.
As these last three PRTs conduct their rotation in Afghanistan, the hope is that the training they have received helps them work with the Afghan people to build a system that continues to work long after they leave
| Date Taken: | 05.16.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 05.17.2013 10:24 |
| Story ID: | 107120 |
| Location: | EDINBURGH, INDIANA, US |
| Hometown: | FORT KNOX, KENTUCKY, US |
| Web Views: | 141 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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