In our third week, the team travelled to Fort Bragg on Wednesday, January 23rd. There we saw all of the equipment that medics have to take inventory for but really don’t use. In general, the equipment medics do take on missions is left up to them and what they believe the team needs. In addition, we went through a quick 30 minute training session in how medics treat a patient after a casualty occurs using the MARCH acronym. M stands for mass hemorrhaging; A for airway; R for respiratory; C for circulation; and H for hypothermia and head injury. After this crash course, we were quickly put into basic gear (a helmet and chest pad) and told that we were going through a training scenario. We were able to use the knowledge from the quick class and turn it around into a real life scenario. The 18D and 18A must work together to coordinate evacuation scenarios and treatment while also securing the perimeter. It made our team realize how stressful these situations can be for medics and how much they are responsible for. In light of this, we want to take the load off the medics in a way that eases the burden of all they have to do. Our new MVP for next week will focus on relieving some of the stress and burden of multitasking, and possibly looking to pivot towards improving availability of information for medical evacuation decision making.

 

Interview 1: CPT Holly

• She talked about the importance of team cohesiveness and  how she interacts with medics, particularly during cross training
• She mentioned that there is no baseline for equipment and the importance of including medical assets when going on a mission

 

Interview 2: 18D Chris

• He responded to our checklist app and clinic model idea and said it would be hard to make it personalized because every mission and location is so different but would be beneficial
• He talked about how difficult it is to figure out logistics and arrangements of med evacs including describing a PACE plan

 

Interview 3: CSM Dave

• He talked about the limitations of equipment, space competition, austere environments and how situational dependent each deployment is
• He added suggestions to a potential app, wanted a foolproof way to catalogue care and treatment, and spoke about how important a database could be of medical facilities

 

Interview 4: CPT Joe

• From the captain’s perspective, operational readiness rests on having a clinic setup and wouldn’t be able to start a mission without doing that (leads into overall DoD mission)
• Whatever is developed could be helpful if it could cross language barriers because of working with partner forces

 

Interview 5: 18D Chandler

• What he actually takes on a mission is up to him and he’s used his own Government Purchasing Card to get equipment he believes is useful (not something SF thinks/knows is necessary)
• Point of injury care is something medics are well practiced in which is what training focuses on and often gets used in incidence number

 

Interview 6: Kevin – SOFACC

• He says that reliance on technology can’t happen because SF is trying to have greater levels of strategic success so once SF leaves, they won’t give technologies away
• Really want to focus on lasting solutions and finding a next level of care which may not necessarily be a doctor
• Medical knowledge doesn’t have to be secure and gave us information on where to find unclassified information

 

Interview 7: Eric – SOFACC

• Make their students develop their own solutions so they can teach them how to innovate in environments they’re unfamiliar in
• They believe that the best information and resources for 18Ds are other 18Ds

 

Interview 8: Medical Director of SOFACC David

• PFC is mimicked in SOFACC training by having trainees take patients across North Carolina for a few days and having them think on the fly
• Talked about the importance of developing local relationships on missions

 

Interview 9: Winnie, SOFACC Trainer

• Goal of SOFACC training is to get as much basic knowledge taught as possible to perform care for 5-10 hours
• Getting that EMT certification allows SOFACCs to jump a lot of hurdles in acquiring medication/aid from bureaucratic agencies/local pharmacies

 

Interview 10: Sergeant Jim (SOFACC Trainee)

• Certain materials in SOFACC training won’t be present on the field usually like the backboard litter (meant for spinal injuries)
  • The resources come with evacuation chopper/plane – not helpful in the moment for men on the ground
• Certain SOFACC training modules are more realistic than others in representing battle field operations, important to imitate the pressure/lack of resources in the real environment