Navy’s new training initiative is preparing students for trauma care

The very first graduating class from the Navy's Hospital Corps "A" School has begun follow-on training. The school updated their curriculum with a new training regimen under new Navy Surgeon General (SG) Initiative, the Hospital Corpsman (HM) Clinical Trauma Experience Proof of Concept course

The HM "A" School implemented the new curriculum in July and graduating in October at the Medical Education and Training Campus (METC) at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston (JBSA-FSH), Taxes.

The  new curriculum will allow the Navy's HMs to study and practice in-patient/out-patient clinic and trauma care, honing skills learned in "A" school, said Chief Hospital Corpsman Yesenia Minaya in an article from DVIDS. Minaya led the Navy Medicine Education, Training and Logistics Command (NMETLC) working group that wrote the curriculum and designed the course.

“It’s a combination of in-patient/out-patient and trauma training with the ultimate goal being trauma care,” said Minaya, who is enlisted as an instructor representing multiple specialties from commands across Navy Medicine. “The course is 12 weeks and includes classroom, medical simulation, and hands-on clinical training.”

The training implements the Navy Surgeon General Vice Adm. Forrest Faison's priority of partnerships. This training partnership is accounted between Navy Medicine, the Department of Veteran's Affairs (VA), and James H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County, a level-one trauma center based in Chicago, Illinois.

The training regimen is split into two 6-week training courses. Six weeks of medical classes in-patient/out-patient clinical training are taught in Great Lakes, Illinois, at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center (FHCC) located near Naval Training Center (NTC). The other six weeks consist of trauma training at Cook County.

The purpose of the training program is to develop and sustain corpsmen medically ready during times of reduced conflict.

“It also provides an opportunity for brand new corpsmen to become more familiar with basic inpatient procedures and trauma situations to better prepare them before arriving at their first duty station,” said Elisha Gowen, an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) charge nurse at Naval Guam, in an article from DVIDS.

The training program, along with several others, was developed by NMETLC in accordance to Chief of Naval Operations (CNO_ Admiral John Richardson's competence and character priorities, including achieving the best possible performance through learning. The program also aims to achieve life-saving capabilities and survivability skills through their training and education programs

“The Surgeon General’s HM Clinical Trauma Experience Proof of Concept is an excellent opportunity to ensure our corpsmen are provided with experiences they can use to build a strong medical foundation, resilience, and enhanced knowledge and expectations in trauma situations,” said Cmdr. Shawn Passons, an ICU, Emergency and Flight Nurse, and an Adult Education and Training Specialist at the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED) in Falls Church Virginia.

“Part of my role as a CNS is to manage the Hospital Corpsman Orientation Program for the Emergency Department at NMCP,” said Cmdr. Autumn Riddell, an ER/Trauma Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth. “The corpsmen graduating from this Clinical Trauma Experience Proof of Concept course will be afforded some amazing opportunities to get these hands-on experiences that will help ensure they are ready to provide efficient care when they report to their first duty station. They will already have been exposed to patient care and will have had the opportunity to work on their critical skills such as patient assessments, IV starts, blood draws, EKG’s, etcetera.”

Although the FHCC training will concentrate on hospital in-patient/out-patient clinical skills, students will also learn the importance of working in a team environment and have hands-on experience in treating injuries similar to the real-life injuries they will see in combat. The training will serve to let students overcome fear and hesitations when treating a trauma patient in a real-life scenario.

The ten instructors are passionately devoted to quality patient care and to help prepare the future generation of medical corpsman for clinical settings and trauma care.

Source:

dvids