Posted: 4/5/2008 9:08:45 AM EDT
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My department is wanting to get all of our officers trained in Tactical Combat Casualty Care and due to being a paramedic I have been advised that they are looking for a instructor course to send me to so I can bring the training back to the department. The problem I'm having is finding a course that offers instructor credentials for this course so if you have any sources I would appreciate them. Thanks in advance. Travis |
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S.T.A.R.T. in ohio stands fo special taticas and rescue training its run by a navey seal (for real) and he is good here is the link strt.us/ i have shoot with them and know them personally could recomend them enough |
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Travis, this may be a bit much, but without a doubt, bar none, nothing comes close to THIS COURSE! It was originally designed around the militarty SF physicians, PA's and combat medics. Due to the nature of the 11 day course, especially the final day, it is generally taught on a secure military facility with strict securtiy. However, they do allow "outside" agencies other than military, mostly tactical units from the Fed, State, local LE to send students as an "adjunct" type of student. Classes are taught by actual medical doctors, and mostly ex-SF combat medic types (Seals, Delta, etc) with a wealth of real world hands on experience. The class is not cheap but worth every single penny. It will go far beyond any other medic / combat / tactical medic course now being taught. I have been to many many classes over my 18 year career, 12 in the tactical side of it, and by far, this is THE BEST class I have ever attended, twice. The last day, practical portion, is a truely amazing experience. ;) If you really are interested in this course you might attempt to contact them and see if you can get a spot in one of their classes, provided you can verify your creds to their satisfaction. If you want to try for this class but get some resistance, then let me know and I can put you in touch with the right guys. |
+1 Good advice from Sherm....just play by the rules over there....first and formost type an intro post to introduce yourself or they will eat you alive. There tactical medic forum is awsome, if they cant help you, no one can. |
I have three friends that attended the course. If the cost doesn't knock your department's socks off the large percentage of the course content that isn't even remotely applicable to civi EMS would. Taking it doesn't qualify you to teach TCCC. Do your officers already hold any medical certs? If they don't then there may be an issue with them using airway adjuncts and performing life saving medical procedures with no state cert. This is no concern of the .mil. As such an infantry grunt can decompress a chest, start an IV or use an NPA. Everybody loves a cert, a course or a train the trainer session. I'm surrounded at work by diploma whores who can actuate none of what they've learned yet have bloated their training jackets with local, county, state and fed course certs. TCCC is a .mil course. It is built for a .mil environment. The first lesson of TCCC is that the best medicine is fire superiority. Maybe not a popular push in the civi LE world when your department lawyers looks at it. Then there are other issues. Like in TCCC you are taught that penetrating trauma with no pulse is written off and no CPR is performed, c-spine isn't needed in penetrating trauma. These two items will most likely be at odds with your local EMS protocols. So what you'll end up doing is a lot of "ignore this' and "this doesn't apply to us." Or just pulling apart the curriculum and making it into something that works for you but a lot of TCCC doesn't work in civi EMS beyond the base morbidity/mortality concepts of what severe injuries are simply and easily treated in the field. You're not going to teach line cops with no certs or BLS cert how to decompress a chest. My thought(and what I've done in my dept) is worked off the base PHTLS and Tactical EMS concepts gone from there. I created a real basic course for line police officers. I go over basic A&P, body systems, injuries, a bit of simple kinematics of trauma, (head neck chest abd trauma,) wounding patterns of guns, pointy things, boom things and blunt instruments/blunt trauma. Then assessments and treatments of the life threatening things they can correct and when to know they need to move like hell to get the guy to an ambulance/definitive treatment. I include in the presentation the use of OPA, NPA, O2, bleeding control, hemostatic agents, tourniquets. I give an overview of shock and it's pathology(simply stated) and how to recognize and treat it. The depth you go into is heavily dependent on whether or not your guys already have medical certs. If they don't you may be up the creek with regards to what skills you can impart upon them past basic first aid and CPR type stuff. |
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Sherm what you said is all well and fine and I understand what you are saying about teaching. But when I teach something I want to know as much as possible, with the best possible information. We do have EMT B trained guys but no Docs, so yes we are aware of EMS protocols, which suck IMO. We understand the issues involved with certain things and take that into account. All of us have also said that if it is our lives, or our partners lives, we are going to do whatever it takes and be damned with protocol and whatever comes after it. This is pretty much life or death decisions and without trying death is pretty much the only other alternative, so I don't think any of us would be able to live with ourselves if we didn't do everything possible and be damned the possible issues. Of course we are not just gonna triage someone and write them off for reasons you posted. But then again I would hate to stand there helpless and not be able to save someones life because I didn't get the best possible training and screw protocol. We are already a tactical division and our focus was not so much on tactics. Neither was the OEMS class. It didn't focus as much on tactics as it did medic care under extreme conditions. For us guys who don't get much actual hands on experience, working with actual living tissue, doing decompressions, buddy transfusions, applying QuikClot, arterial IV's, stitches, intibating, etc, etc, etc, was an invaluable experience that cannot be duplicated in a classroom. I will just say that the OEMS 11 day course blew away the entire Federal EMT, week on end certification class. It wasn't even close. Not sure what creds he needs, but without a doubt and I stand by this 100%, the class that I linked, was by far, bar none, the best class for actually learning how to save someones life under fire. |
I do not doubt for a minute that that is one of the best classes out there for prepping guys going to war or work domestically as a IDC/IDM/paramedic practitioner where there system backs their newfound skill set. I agree local protocol handcuffs do indeed suck. I understand doing the right thing. I think we're very much on the same page. But the intent of OEMS is .mil care and advanced med procedures in an austere environment. Most likely, and I'm guessing here, the guys he wants to spin up wouldn't need an instructor who can start an a-line and crack a chest. My point is not that you as a teacher should or should have the best chance at the best training. The more the better. It's akin to asking for a first aid kit and they throw a whole ambulance at you. What is most important that you teach to the level and needs of the audience. He would most likely take that course and say "Cool shit!" and then "I can't use that shit in my system!" Again, TCCC is geared towards a .mil provider. Here, we are obviously not .mil providers. If you train guys above their skill set. If you train them in some whiz bang procedure that they do wrong to a team member with the best of intentions sorry won't cut it. It has never ceased to amaze me how fast blood brothers can lawyer(ir union rep) up and go at each other's throats when it all goes to pot and guys are fighting to keep their jobs. Me doing live tissue labs and all the high speed stuff isn't going to make me make a cop under my instruction a better CFR or EMT. So I can needle crich a pig trach or tube a kitten. Big whoop. Good BLS is more of a life saver than anything else. I packed my guys out with soft tissue management, TKs and airway items. Past that their hands are tied protocol wise in my system. My dept (I'm a civi medic) is around 3K officers. Tubing, combitubes, IVs, decompressing a chest, OPA, NPA, work a BVM, sealing holes, and stabilizing flail segs are low tech skills that I could reliably get most people to do after a bunch of training sessions. It's a indset that has to develop. Do the most important thing the quickest. What happened to the guy? What's gonna kill him? What can I do about it? Also, obviously this is all dependent on how far from definitive care you are. In my system you're never more than 15 min from a Level 1 trauma center and an ambulance will be at your side within 9 minutes. Tac medics are with the SWAT guys so no worries there. |