Navy Medicine restructures leadership training with NML&PDC

BETHESDA, MD, UNITED STATES

07.31.2020

Story by Petty Officer 1st Class David Kolmel 

Naval Medical Forces Support Command

BETHESDA, Md. -- The Chief of Naval Operations approved the Navy Surgeon General’s recommendation July 31, to establish the Naval Medical Leader and Professional Development Command (NML&PDC). The new mission statement, “We develop leaders and their professional careers” defines the new command’s way forward.

Formerly named Navy Medicine Professional Development Center, NML&PDC leverages over 350 military and civilian personnel to deliver the Navy Surgeon General’s strategic objective of building a high-performing medical force ready to meet 21st century mission requirements for the warfighter.
The command, located at Building One of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center here, is a subordinate training command of Naval Forces Support Command in San Antonio. NML&PDC follows a Sailor’s medical training from “cradle to grave” beginning with entry level training, it offers courses spanning the continuum of a Sailor’s Navy Medicine career.

Here are some of the leadership programs and directorates offered to Sailors by NML&PDC:

Leader Development Academy
NML&PDC, designed as the inaugural hub for the Navy SG’s Leader Development Academy, is tasked to align the SG’s leadership strategy with the CNO’s Leader Development Framework within the Navy Medicine enterprise through training, executive coaching, career development, and Predictive Index® personnel development and teambuilding processes to build, grow, and develop effective leadership teams. The LDA has collaborated with Navy line leadership agencies, including the Navy Leadership and Ethics Center, Navy Personnel Command and the Navy Medicine Reserve Component, to maximize cohesive alignment within the Navy Culture of Excellence.

Academics Directorate
The NML&PDC Academics Directorate delivers a robust residential and distance education portfolio, which includes the primary training for Navy Medicine Plans, Operations, and Medical Intelligence Officers, Patient Administration Officers, Military Tropical Medicine, and Fiscal and Logistics training to prepare Navy Medicine staff for their assigned missions. As a result of COVID-19, the team has adeptly adjusted to distance learning platforms, which has already trained 178 students to ensure seamless continuity in the preparation of medical personnel for assignments.

The Naval Postgraduate Dental School
The school develops dental leaders through multi-year residency training to ensure specialized dentists across eight specialties are available for worldwide assignment. Additionally, the school provides Continuing Dental Education to provide advanced education and current practice guidelines to practicing federal dentists.

Officer Programs Directorate
Ensuring a robust pipeline of talented medical professionals are available to sustain operations is the mission of the Officer Programs Directorate, which orchestrates multiple advanced training pipelines to include: Graduate Medical Education, Duty Under Instruction, enlisted medical commissioning programs, and assisting with the provision of professional certification.

Tri-Service Optician School
The Tri-Service Optician School (TOPS) located in Yorktown, Va., is one of three Council on Occupational Education accredited enlisted training programs managed by NML&PDC. The TOPS team is tasked with annually equipping over 50 Navy and Army opticians to help ensure optimal medical readiness.

Visual Information Directorate
Finally, the Visual Information Directorate ensures the strategic messaging and communication needs of Navy Medicine are met spanning the creative spectrum from COVID-19 information to branding initiatives and video productions promoting the SG’s priorities. All efforts are designed to support a high-performing Navy Medicine Team that is trained and equipped to take care of warfighters and their families.

The birth of NML&PDC marks a key strategic movement within Navy Medicine to build an operationally focused organization that will take military medical operations into the future. Its mission “focuses on the critically-evolving requirement for ready, relevant learning, agile learning systems and processes, and seamless alignment of mission, values, and commitment among all components within the Department of Defense,” said Navy Capt. Barry Adams NML&PDC’s commanding officer. “It all starts and ends with the concept that highly reliable sustained performance is constructed and maintained within a culture where leaders develop leaders.”

• Date Taken: 07.31.2020
• Date Posted: 08.11.2020 13:15
• Story ID: 375737
• Location: BETHESDA, MD, US