Photo By Petty Officer 1st Class Weston Mohr | The third class of Corpsman Trauma Training students and their Navy Medicine...... read more read more
CHICAGO --- The road to the recent Navy Corpsman Trauma Training graduation at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County was long, said Dr. Frederic Starr at the Sept. 6 ceremony.
“It all started as an informal partnership with Lovell Federal Health Care Center in 2013, with some Lovell FHCC surgeons coming here informally,” said Starr, Stroger attending trauma surgeon. “From that initial exposure, a more robust program blossomed.”
Starr praised the 16 corpsmen in the third graduating class. “This is the best so far,” he said. “You’re here to immerse yourselves, to become part of the team, and the reason it’s so successful is because of all of you, your willingness, your professionalism … you’ve left a very strong impression on all of us.”
Starr joined fellow Stroger staff members, Lovell FHCC leaders, Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery leaders and instructors, and former NASA astronaut and Navy (Ret.) Capt. James A. Lovell to honor the hospital corpsmen, who are assigned to military treatment facilities across the country. The corpsmen completed seven weeks of immersive clinical and trauma training at the FHCC and at Stroger in the hospital’s trauma center, trauma ICU, ER and burn unit.
“Today’s event marks the culmination of training that truly will make a difference, both in the lives of the hospital corpsmen who graduate today and in the lives of their future patients,” said Capt. Gregory Thier, Lovell FHCC deputy director and commanding officer. “We’re proud at the FHCC to be an integral part of the Corpsman Trauma Training program.”
A Navy Medicine Education, Training and Logistics Command working group that included Lovell FHCC leaders designed the Corpsman Trauma Training course to provide hands-on clinical and trauma training to corpsmen before their deployments to provide medical care for Navy and Marine Corps personnel during real-world operations. The first class graduated at Lovell FHCC in Jan. 2017.
At Lovell FHCC during the first week of training, the corpsmen learned in the classroom and through simulation training on high-tech manikins, and they completed the demanding Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) course run by the FHCC Simulation Center.
In total, the students completed 62 hours of didactic and practical skills training. In addition to TCCC, the students became proficient at trauma care concepts, primary and secondary survey assessments, burn management and wound and head injury management. At Stroger, they were divided into two teams and completed 192 hours of clinical rotations.
Force Master Chief Hosea Smith, Jr., director of the Navy Hospital Corps, also spoke at the ceremony and said the trauma training partnership between the FHCC, Stroger and Navy Medicine “means the world.
“I’ve been in 31 years, and I wish I would have had an opportunity for training like this as a junior sailor,” he said. “This is a unique opportunity … We don’t want the corpsmen to see blood for the first time when it happens on the battlefield.”
Smith said Navy Medicine is committed to the partnership with the FHCC and Stroger and that the Corpsman Trauma Training program will continue in the next fiscal year at Stroger and at a few other locations across the nation.
“Building confidence, that’s what this is about,” Smith said. “It’s about knowing how to perform under stress.”
Stroger’s Level I Trauma Center, one of the nation’s busiest, sees approximately 5,000 patients annually. Of those, about a third are gunshot and stabbing victims, said Dr. Faran Bokhari, chairman of the Stroger Trauma and Burn Unit, during his remarks. “We’ve adapted and learned from military medicine … and it has decreased death rates.”
Bokhari said having the corpsmen train at Stroger, working closely with Stroger doctors and nurses, has been “a remarkable experience for all of us. These young people have inspired us … They’ve worked alongside us, and have done it with composure and professionalism of veterans.”
“You reminded us every day of your commitment,” Bokhari said. “We are humbled by your service, and for that, we are forever grateful.”
One of the graduates, 20-year-old Hospitalman Desmond Lane from Long Beach, Calif., told radio and TV reporters after the ceremony that he worked on many trauma cases, including gunshot and stab wounds, drug overdoses, and injuries from traffic accidents and falls. “I’ve seen a lot … but that’s what I’m here for. I’m ready,” he said, illustrating the confidence he has gained from the training.
Lane and Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Alicea St. Amant, assigned to Navy Hospital Rota, Spain, received the “Hospital Corpsman Comeback Award,” given to the students who “made a complete turnaround from the classroom into the Level I Trauma setting, demonstrating vast professional growth in the execution of technical skills as well as in their ability to apply critical thinking.”
Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Jacob Alvarez and Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Justin Butcher were chosen by their classmates to win the “I am the One Called Doc” award, for embodying “the role of Doc through their relentless drive, selflessness, exceptional leadership skills and superb technical abilities.”
Butcher, from Honey Creek Iowa, said all his training so far is about one thing – “the patient. What we do here, and what we do on the battlefield, it’s all taking care of the patient.”
Butcher’s next assignment is with the Marines, something he’s looked forward to since he joined the Navy and chose to become a hospital corpsman. “It’s exciting to take everything I’ve learned with me to my next duty station,” he said in an interview prior to the graduation.
Chief Hospital Corpsman Yesenia Minaya, senior enlisted leader for all three classes, emceed the ceremony. “I felt incredibly honored and humbled for being given the opportunity to help pave the way for future trauma training iterations,” said Minaya, a leader in the NMETLC working group. “Being a part of it from the very beginning was very rewarding, and being able to contribute to the readiness of the Hospital Corps is an experience I will never forget.”
The next class of corpsmen to come to Lovell FHCC and Stroger is tentatively planned for April 2019, when Corpsman Trauma Training is expected to become an official “program of record” for the Navy. Until then, select Navy medical personnel assigned to Lovell FHCC will continue rotations at Stroger to gain valuable trauma experience and improve their readiness to deploy, while keeping the partnership viable.
The Lovell FHCC and Stroger partnership started with Lovell FHCC trauma surgeon Capt. Paul Roach, who approached Stroger in 2013 and asked if he could volunteer at the hospital to further his own trauma skills.
Roach helped expand and formalize the Lovell FHCC-Stroger partnership over the years and played a role in the development of the Corpsman Trauma Training program. He said attending the graduation ceremony gave him an acute sense of accomplishment.
“The significance of the event, the newness, the promise of future developments, watching it proceed, the singing of the National Anthem, Captain Lovell, seeing the corpsmen get their diplomas, knowing how it benefits those corpsmen and the sailors and marines they will care for and how it’s formed the new paradigm for corpsman combat preparedness throughout the Navy ... I felt a tremendous sense of satisfaction,” Roach said.
| Date Taken: | 09.21.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 09.21.2018 14:57 |
| Story ID: | 293953 |
| Location: | NORTH CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, US |
| Web Views: | 668 |
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