NMRTC-CC decon team cleans up in training exercise

Photo By Dale Davis | Members of Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command Corpus Christi’s Decontamination Incident Response Team transport a simulated patient during First Receiver Operations Training (FROT) Dec. 2. The training is designed to educate U.S. Navy medical personnel on life-saving skills required to triage, initiate field treatment, decontaminate and save victims from Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN), or hazardous materials exposure. The semi-annual training course included classroom instruction, gear inventory, utility checks, equipment set-up, and timed teamwork drills. For the practical application portion of the training, the students demonstrated the setting up and tearing down of a three-lane DECON shelter, and processing and treating different types of patients.  

CORPUS CHRISTI, TX, UNITED STATES

12.02.2021

Story by Dale Davis 

Naval Health Clinic Corpus Christi, Texas

Sailors from Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command Corpus Christi participated in semi-annual First Receiver Operations Training November 30 – December 2.

The training is designed to educate personnel on life-saving skills required to triage, initiate field treatment, decontaminate and save victims from Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN), or hazardous materials exposure.

During the three-day training, members of the clinic’s Decontamination Incident Response Team performed inventory and functional inspections on decontamination equipment and learned about hazardous materials, contaminating agents, personal protective equipment and how to process patients through a decontamination station.

The training evolution culminated in a real-world scenario, where team members were measured on their ability to react to an exposure event.

As part of the measured exercise, decontamination team members were timed in two areas: mission capable, where four team members were required to fully dress out in personal protective equipment and ready to receive patients in less than 15 minutes, and fully capable, where a decontamination station is set up and all team members are dressed out in personal protective equipment and ready to receive process patients in less than 20 minutes.

During the exercise, NMRTC Corpus Christi’s decontamination response team completed both portions before the allotted time, reaching the mission capable mark at 4 minutes, and achieving full dress out and set up in 9 minutes and 30 seconds.

Following the timed portion of the exercise, the decontamination team practiced receiving ambulatory and non-ambulatory casualties. Team members assessed the simulated casualties to determine the extent of their injuries before routing them to the decontamination station, a pressurized, heated water shower system, were they were washed down with sponges and a soap solution.

NMRTC Corpus Christi’s Decontamination Incident Response Team holds monthly training in preparation for the semi-annual recertification.

• Date Taken: 12.02.2021
• Date Posted: 12.07.2021 14:04
• Story ID: 410626
• Location: CORPUS CHRISTI, TX, US