Photo By Staff Sgt. Sarah Myrick | Staff Sgt. Myra Estes, a dental hygienist of the Maine Army National Guard Medical...... read more read more
The Maine Army National Guard Medical Detachment practiced general Soldier tasks and medical specific skills at the Bog Brook Training site in Gilead August 11- 17, 2017.
Soldiers conducted four days of valuable classroom training before heading out into the field for a week of hands-on training on the table eight skills to recertify the combat medics.
Table eight skills are the seven instructional table exercises that go through all the medic skills, including trauma assessment, airway management, inserting IVs, triage and evacuation, and CPR. The final table is the validation test on all the subjects, which is a requirement to maintain the combat medic military occupational specialty.
“We came out here to create lanes that are as real to life as possible,” said 1st Sgt. Shawn Chabot, the first sergeant of the Medical Detachment.
Chabot credits the overall success of the table eight training to the unit’s full-time staff.
“It’s a lot of great training,” said Chabot. “All these skills are important to all Soldiers.”
On Sunday, Soldiers conducted a field training exercise with tasks based on the Expert Field Medic Badge test which was slated to be hosted by the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, New York, the following week.
The EFMB is a four-day event that any enlisted Army combat medic or Army medical officer can attend. It tests Soldiers’ proficiency on basic Soldier skills like reacting to contact, radio communication and clearing a landing zone, as well as medic specific tasks such as extricating a casualty from a vehicle, assessing a casualty on the battlefield and loading the casualty into a tactical vehicle for evacuation.
“It’s extremely difficult,” said Sgt. 1st Class Kyle Bartman, the readiness noncommissioned officer of the Medical Detachment. “They get tested on all these skills and they have to do every task exactly right. They have to have every skill memorized, do each one without flaw and in the correct sequence.”
The EFMB test itself was cancelled this year, but instead of scrapping the training they turned it into a different kind of exercise that everyone in the unit could benefit from.
“We had our dentists, nurses, patient administrators, dental technicians, basically all of our non-medics going through the lanes and doing the hands on training,” said Bartman. “It forced the combat medics to have to tell the non-medics how to do things. If a non-medic was struggling with a task, the medic wasn’t allowed to jump in, they had to explain how to do it correctly.”
Bartman said that he feels this exercise is beneficial because it gets Soldiers out of their comfort zones.
“Soldiers get into a routine,” said Bartman. “They do the same thing every single month, and they don’t get a chance to get out and do these basic warrior skills and tasks.”
The EFMB lanes were followed by day and night land navigation courses. Non-medics found the cross-training beneficial, particularly the dental team.
“Out in combat, my role can change at any one moment,” said 1st Lt. Daniel Duarte, a medical administrator with the detachment. “I feel that no Soldier can be over prepared so the more knowledge we have the better we are able to serve our brothers and sisters.”
Duarte recently transferred from the Louisiana Army National Guard to the Maine Army National Guard to attend the University of New England’s dental program.
“I worked closely with the dentists in the National Guard and that’s what inspired me to become a one,” said Duarte. “My goal is to become a dentist in the Maine Army National Guard and give lectures on the prevention aspect of dentistry, like how to prevent common diseases like cavities and gingivitis.”
Staff Sgt. Myra Estes is a dental hygienist with the unit and works as a dental hygienist in her civilian career. She said that it’s important to know that the mouth is connected to the whole body to maintain total body health.
Estes, who is currently attending nursing school said this training was a great refresher of her responsibilities to support the combat medics.
“I’m in charge of the whole dental office,” said Estes, “I have Soldiers who have dual specialties so this training makes it possible for me to not only be able to relate to what they do as a combat medic, but also helps me train and mentor them.”
| Date Taken: | 08.15.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 08.15.2017 14:18 |
| Story ID: | 244935 |
| Location: | GILEAD, ME, US |
| Web Views: | 289 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Maine National Guard Medics Refresh Table VIII Skills, by SSG Sarah Myrick, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
LEAVE A COMMENT