Photo By Master Sgt. Terysa King | U.S. Army Maj. Ryan Chicoine, a certified registered nurse anesthetist with the 160th...... read more read more
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MIAMI, Florida – To help prepare for upcoming medical missions, approximately 20 personnel with the 160th Forward Resuscitative Surgical Detachment, 519th Hospital Center, 30th Medical Brigade, attended the Army Trauma Training Course at Ryder Trauma Center 6-20 April.
The two-week course provided the 160th surgical teams with pre-deployment hands-on training to improve teamwork and prepare them for treating casualties that are typical in a deployed environment.
Spc. Jason Pulido, a combat medic, said this training was a chance to relearn the basics, since he can’t go to clinicals as often as he would like to, since arriving to the unit 8 months ago.
“Any skills we learn in Advanced Individual Training (AIT) is perishable if you’re not practicing it,” said Pulido. “It was rough in the beginning to acknowledge, but it was also good to know that this is what I need to work on.”
During the course, the FRSD went over didactics, patient care, trauma care, medical procedural skills, and then split up into 12-hour day and night shifts for clinicals and assisting the hospital staff as needed. The course ended with a two-day simulated training exercise covering a mass casualty event with actors, mannequins, and advanced medical models.
Spc. Blaine Frey, a practical nursing specialist, said the course was a great opportunity to be integrated into the unit. Frey has only been with the unit for four months, and the course showed him how the unit can operate in deployed conditions.
“It was a great introduction as being part of the FRSD,” said Frey. “It was a great familiarization. I feel like I can now operate with the team. It’s a great introduction to trauma and what the FRSD does. It’s the best training I’ve had in the Army.”
Ryder Trauma Center is the nation’s only surgical training facility for the U.S. Army. The center houses civilian physicians, nurses and medical students, and has an agreement in place where Army teams can receive hands on training with patients.
Along with learning how to treat complex trauma patients, the team also learned to improve their group dynamics. Maj. Steve Louvet, an emergency physician officer, said learning to speak the same language for under high-stress scenarios was essential to operating as a small team.
“When you are part of a tightly knit unit like an FRSD and you have various roles coming together, you need exercises that stress the importance of communication,” said Louvet. “[I valued] the ability to multitask and be situationally aware in a space where you may be pulled in multiple directions. The course allowed us the time to bridge that and to share what we are specialists in, so when are downrange we can cross cover each other, that’s important in a small team.”
The 160th FRSD’s next real-world mission is supporting a medical readiness exercise in Africa this summer. Maj. Stefan Kazacos, 160th FRSD commander, said the course is required prior to deployments, and keeps the unit’s skills sharp.
“Overall, the training was excellent as it was truly focused on the FRSD mission set and we had the opportunity to treat patients as a team,” said Kazacos. “A Europe Command (EUCOM) FRSD had not rotated to ATTC since the COVID pandemic. This training is integral to maintaining the FRSD clinical currency and should occur biannually or if possible, annually.”
| Date Taken: | 06.13.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 06.18.2024 08:20 |
| Story ID: | 473852 |
| Location: | MIAMI, FLORIDA, US |
| Web Views: | 33 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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