By Maj. Michael E. Condon
ARMEDCOM
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - Safety is always first in the Army Reserve Medical Command, and the soldiers of the command participated in a December 2012 three-day Composite Risk Management Train-The-Trainer Course at the C.W. “Bill” Young Armed Forces Reserve Center.
Soldiers completing the training will be a unit subject matter expert on risk management and have the skills to train up their fellow soldiers in CRM, said Master Sgt. Keith Murray, the noncommissioned officer in charge of safety for AR-MEDCOM, and the lead instructor for the course.
Assisting Murray with the training as assistant instructors was Maj. James Booth, from the Central Medical Area Readiness Support Group. Both instructors are graduates of the six-week Ground Safety Officer Course taught at Fort Rucker, Ala.
The instructors were joined by Capt. Carola Carpintero, interim safety officer for AR-MEDCOM, and a Medical Service Corps officer.
Murray said mentioned that there had been a shortfall in composite risk management trainers within the command, and this training increases the soldiers with this skill.
The training consisted of soldiers from the command’s four brigade-level echelons: southeastern, northeastern and central medical area readiness support groups, along with the Medical Readiness Training Command, along staff elements from the AR-MEDCOM headquarters.
The course focused on the five-step composite risk management process – identify hazards, assess hazards, develop controls and make risk decisions, implement controls, and supervise and refine. The course also discussed the risk management sheet, which commanders and unit leaders use to plan safety, Murray said.
Additionally, soldiers learned about the Risk Management Information System and the Ground Risk Assessment Tool, programs on the U.S. Army Combat Readiness/Safety Center website, which has information about safety hazards and risk reduction measures, he said.
“I got a better understanding of the process,” is how Staff Sgt. Chadwick Heuton of the 7212th Medical Support Unit. The 7212th is a downtrace unit of the CE-MARSG.
The final day of training consisted mostly of presentations on composite risk management, where the soldiers took turns giving safety briefs as if they were back at their home units.