Medical Military Mobility Essays - Air Medical Services,

POSITION PAPER ON MEDICAL MOBILITY 1. Diverse threats to our nation?s security, both at home and abroad, challenge the Air Force?s medical personnel to develop innovative solutions in order to provide medical support for the wide range of military operations we are facing today. As dozens of small-scale contingencies around the world challenge deployed Air Force medics, the Air Force medical service must rethink its readiness postures to fit this paradigm. By improving training programs, matching professional skill-sets with job positions and providing up-to-date and necessary medical equipment, we can tailor our medical response to better fit the unique circumstances faced during contingency deployments. 2. Medics face diverse and frightening circumstances, requiring more specialized training, as our military increases its participation in nontraditional roles. Potential scenarios could involve weapons of mass destruction, natural disasters, and/or complex technological, political or natural crises. Since each situation is unique, lessons learned from previous disasters will not solve all the problems of a new crisis. However, one tried and true way of better preparing our Airmen for these situations is through consistent and relevant training. Unfortunately, we are continuing to deploy Airmen who lack the required specialty skill proficiencies, battlefield preparedness and equipment training which are vital to our success in the field. According to Captain Elwood Conaway, TNS, Coalition for Sustainment of Trauma and Readiness Skills (CSTARS) program instructor, ?A major contributor to the issue surrounding insufficient medical readiness training for airmen is the fact that, with the exception of Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland AFB, TX, the Air Force does not possess any Level 1 academic training facilities to adequately prepare and train members for deployed locations.? 1 In an attempt to remedy this problem, the CSTARS program, located within the University of Maryland?s R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, was created to provide a 3-4 week trauma course to specific medical specialties in preparation for deployment. This is a step in the right direction, however, 3 weeks of trauma observation at a civilian medical center is not nearly enough time and cannot possibly cover the broad range of diverse situations which will be encountered while mobilized. In order to fully prepare our medics to deploy as effective team members, more in depth training programs must be explored to include not only medical/trauma training in hospitals, but also intense field and arms training, as well as sufficient medical equipment instruction. 3. Many of our forward operating Air Force hospitals are outfitted with outdated, incompatible and unusable supplies and equipment. In many instances, intravenous fluids and sterile and pharmaceutical items had expired before they were needed for use.2 Because most air transportable hospitals are supplied with older generations of medical equipment, many medical personnel have never seen or used the equipment they are expected to utilize in theater. Therefore, extensive training is required after their arrival. To counter these problems, programs must be put in place to take periodic inventory and make quality assessments of war reserve material, review hospitals? inventory lists to ensure the proper items are available in adequate amounts, and take the proper steps to ensure training on relevant equipment is accomplished prior to arriving on station. 4. Besides inadequate training and equipment, many of the deployed medical teams are staffed with persons whose specialty skills either are not current, or do not coincide with the position they are tasked to fill. For example, often times hospitals will have a number of senior active and reserve component nurses that have been involved in administrative functions and have not maintained their proficiency as nurses. Nevertheless, they deploy to provide primary nursing skills. In addition, many enlisted reservists have unrelated civilian occupations and are not proficient in their military skills prior to deployment. Furthermore, we are deploying aeromedical evacuation crew members who have not flown actual missions or are not familiar with certain types of aeromedical evacuation equipment. It is vitally important that we are sending the professionals best suited to fill these positions forward. Measures must be taken to ensure that billets are being filled with those individuals who possess and are current in the skills required to fulfill their roles in the field. To accomplish this, we must put measures in place such as