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NEMTI Redefines Operational Medical Training for Deploying Medical Personnel

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS110902-20
9/2/2011

From Navy Medicine Support Command Public Affairs

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (NNS) -- Members of a Navy Medicine Support Command (NMSC) planning meeting announced Aug. 31 in Jacksonville that Navy medical professionals deploying to the Role 3 Hospital at Kandahar Air Field in Afghanistan are scheduled to receive a new pre-deployment training course as early as February 2012.

The meeting was organized to enhance existing training doctrine and programs for service members scheduled to spend six, nine or 12 months at Role 3 and resulted in a plan to further integrate the Navy Expeditionary Medical Training Institute (NEMTI) in their training pipeline.

The term "Role" describes the tiers in which medical support is organized, with Role 3 describing the capabilities of a theater-level hospital.

Service members and civilian employees from the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED), Fleet Forces Command (FFC), NMSC, Navy Medical Center Portsmouth, Va., Navy Medicine Manpower, Personnel, Training and Education (NM MPT&E) Command, the Naval Operational Medicine Institute (NOMI) and NEMTI discussed the feasibility of integrating a training mechanism designed to provide a well-rounded approach to medical professionals preparing for a tour of duty at the U.S. military's most active battlefield hospital in more than four decades.

According to NMSC Lean Six Sigma Program Management Office Director Capt. Kathryn Summers, Nurse Corps, providing a training evolution to prepare medical professionals for an arduous tour of duty remains a cornerstone of NMSC leadership. The majority of these professionals have not experienced this level of combat trauma, and this training is something she said will directly benefit the hundreds of patients the Kandahar Role 3 Hospital will undoubtedly see.

"The medical team that Navy Medicine will be sending to Kandahar in February will have an incredible responsibility to provide critical life and limb saving health care to our most precious asset - our Sailors, Soldiers, Airmen and Marines," she said. "It is our leadership responsibility to train our staff, so they can continue to optimize health outcomes for our wounded warriors and Navy Medicine Support Command leadership takes the responsibility of providing world-class pre-deployment training with great pride."

FFC, which maintains oversight of Navy Individual Augmentee Combat Training (NIACT), remains the final approval authority for the additional training medical professionals en route to Kandahar Role 3 Hospital will undergo. Individuals charged with developing the curriculum said incorporating scenarios closely approximating what personnel could expect remains paramount, while at the same time ensuring that all requisite training, both combat skills and medical unit training, for U.S. Navy personnel entering the U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) area of operations is completed.

"It is critical that we provide as much realism as possible," said Navy Medical Center, Portsmouth, Va., Simulation Center Director Capt. Jim Ritchie. "This helps manage the expectations of the staff and will, through team work, build stronger resilience as they provide the life-saving medical care in such a challenging environment."

The U.S. Navy assumed responsibility for the Kandahar Role 3 Hospital operations from Canadian forces in August 2009, and a newer, more modern $60 million facility was opened in May 2010. Previous training for medical personnel deploying to the Kandahar Role 3 hospital centered primarily around combat skills, a necessity for deployed service members. Program managers, however, recognized the need to integrate medical training scenarios to expand upon the knowledge and skills required to fill positions at the Kandahar Role 3 facility, a far cry from the standard operating procedures at most military treatment facilities.

In response to feedback from previously deployed personnel, including the past and current commanding officers of the North American Treaty Organization (NATO)-run Role 3 Kandahar Medical Facility and other identified gaps in training, CENTCOM published the USCENTCOM 2012 Non-Standard Forces Training Requirement Document which adds specific medical training requirements for medical units deploying to the area of operations.

New requirements include specific trauma team training, care of mild traumatic brain injury, clinical practice guidelines (best clinical practices developed in theater), sexual assault forensic examinations, and training on the clinical computer systems used in theater.

According to NMSC Deputy Chief of Staff, M5, Pat Craddock, with medical team training now recognized as a CENTCOM requirement, Navy Medicine's training structure is making plans to provide the much-needed training to the next wave of personnel destined for Kandahar Role 3 Hospital. She said NOMI Detachment NEMTI, located at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., will serve as an intermediate stop after medical professionals complete NIACT requirements at military training sites such as Fort Dix, New Jersey or Fort Jackson, South Carolina.

Craddock added that this additional medical team training is estimated to last 8-10 days, but stressed that no time would be added to the length of a service member's deployment.

She also said this training effort is the result of numerous entities working together to ensure the estimated 200 members staffing the hospital each deployment - 60 of whom are Navy Reservists - are expertly trained and ready for what can be a challenging mission.

"It will take a team effort to execute the full training schedule with such a large group in a compact time period," she said. "But I have no doubt that NEMTI will accomplish this training by capitalizing on partnerships with Navy Medicine as well as through receiving support from the Defense Medical Readiness Training Institute for trauma instructors and other Navy Medicine MTFs [Medical Treatment Facilities] for assistance in simulation exercises."

Summers also said the importance of partnerships during this effort could not be understated, citing NEMTI as instrumental in the thrust for this revitalized training pipeline.

"Team training on equipment and the latest life-saving protocols such as the Joint Theater Trauma guidelines are essential tools to arm our medical team with in advance of their deployment," she said. "NEMTI has worked extensively with key stakeholders to tailor the training curriculum to include topics such as trauma management, combat stress, and management of total brain injury, setting the stage for a seamless turnover of responsibility to the new Navy Medicine team."

NEMTI reports to Navy Medicine Support Command, headquartered aboard Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Fla. NMSC provides a single point of accountability for support services within Navy Medicine, and exercises command and control, and financial management oversight over subordinate commands and ensures the economical and effective delivery of Navy Medicine enterprise-wide support services.