Story by Staff Sgt. David Bruce
Camp Atterbury Public Affairs
EDINBURGH, Ind. — Army medics are required to complete 72 hours of training every two years to ensure their skills do not deteriorate.
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| Spc. Brenda Schoeppner, of Hastings, Minn., a medic with the Army Reserve’s 7228th Medical Support Unit, prepares an intravenous line during medic sustainment training held at Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center, Ind., Jan. 10. The sustainment training fulfills 48 of the 72 required hours of training that must be completed every two years by Army medics to keep their military occupational specialty. |
To address this training requirement, National Guard and Army Reserve medics came to Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center to fulfill 48 hours of sustainment training Jan. 9 – 15.
During the training period, the medics will practice starting intravenous lines, treating fractured limbs, controlling bleeding, establishing and maintaining an airway and breathing and treatment of other injuries common to today’s battlefields.
According to Spc. Amanda Andrews, of Bristol, Ind., a medic with the 215th Medical Company of the Indiana Army National Guard, the week-long training is good to keep up her skills.
As National Guard soldiers we do not necessarily work with this in our civilian jobs, said Andrews. This gives us a chance to help reestablish things we haven’t done in a while.
Should a medic not meet this training requirement, they could see their military occupational specialty revoked, said Sgt. Ashley While, of Fishers, Ind., with Detachment 2, Company B Recruiting and Retention Battalion Indiana Army National Guard.
People don’t realize how much training medics receive,‖ she said.
Without this training we would lose our MOS. Not only is this required by the Army, but the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians to keep our EMT certification, said White.
To give the medics the most realistic training experience possible, the sustainment training is being conducted at the Camp Atterbury Medical Simulation Training Center.
The way we used to do medical training when I came in, we would have a mannequin and an instructor that would tell us if the patient was breathing or had a pulse, said Thomas Deen, of Bloomington, Ind., instructor for the sustainment program and retired Army medic.
With the MSTC, the mannequins simulate actual injuries—they breathe and bleed so the medics can see what they are dealing with as they put what they learned in the classroom to work.
Deen said the 7-day course combines a classroom setting with hands-on experience as they practice techniques, which culminates in a practical exercise.
History shows that medicine increases in times of war, said Deen.
One of the changes is tourniquets. Used to be that was the last resort to stop bleeding. Now the tourniquet is applied immediately to stop severe blood loss.
The decrease in fatalities during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as opposed to past wars speaks volumes to the advances in combat medicine as factors contributing to combat survival, just as much as improved technology such as improved body armor.
There have been many changes in combat medicine and we have a mixed class of medics who have been deployed and can share what they saw and learned with the medics that haven’t been deployed, said White.
The training completed at Camp Atterbury fulfills part of the training requirement. The medics will go on to complete training in additional areas of emergency medicine.
The other 24 hours of training consists of refresher courses, said Deen. The National registry asks for 24 hours of continuing education as part of the requirement to keep their certification current. The combat medic MOS is one of the only specialties with a continuing education requirement.
