USU Medical Field Exercise Tests International Students’ Resilience, Teaches Invaluable Lessons

UNITED STATES

11.02.2023

Story by Sarah Marshall 

Uniformed Services University

Amid the current global landscape, where collaboration with our allied nation partners is of paramount importance, the Uniformed Services University’s (USU) annual four-day medical field practicum, Operation Bushmaster, serves as a crucial examination of students' abilities to respond to battlefield emergencies in challenging, austere settings, featuring an array of realistic scenarios. Students from USU, as well as international military medical students, participate in the exercise, which tests their adaptability, problem-solving skills, and readiness in the face of complex and unpredictable challenges. This exercise not only fosters critical skills but also reinforces the fundamental principles of cooperation and coordination among allied nations.

And this year, for some of the international students, this experience transcended the academic scope and was also the ultimate test of resilience.
A diverse group of 11 students from Israel, Germany, and the United Kingdom actively engaged in this year’s exercise. They were joined by several faculty observers from Germany, Britain, France, and Japan. Operation Bushmaster unfolds over two iterations at Fort Indiantown Gap, a vast Army reserve post nestled in rural Pennsylvania.

Alongside their global peers, USU's fourth-year medical students, advanced practice nursing students, postgraduate dental students, and clinical psychology graduate students put their skills to the test.

Over the years, Bushmaster has constantly evolved to meet the changing military operational mission environment and medical unit capabilities, bringing in foreign military medical students from allied partner nations. More than 100 international students have participated to date, including representatives from Australia, Russia, Mexico, Japan, Canada, Egypt, and Taiwan in addition to the countries participating this year.

Additionally, bringing in international students and faculty to Bushmaster offers a chance for participants to learn how to integrate with other teams that don’t always speak their same language, according to Navy Capt. (Dr.) Sherri Rudinsky, chair of USU’s Department of Military and Emergency Medicine (MEM), which oversees the Bushmaster exercise. For the international students, it’s also an opportunity to realize some of those inherent challenges they might also face, such as using foreign equipment and resources. It’s a win-win, all the way around, she said.

In the two weeks leading up to Bushmaster, MEM’s Military Contingency Medicine course starts by dividing students into platoons, and allowing them to work together to develop a full-scale plan for deployment. Once they reach the field, they put that into practice. Students assume leadership roles which they rotate throughout their time in the field, testing their abilities to respond to challenging conditions, while simulating a deployment. They are also graded on their leadership ability, teamwork, confidence, and decision-making skills – to name a few. They go through a variety of scenarios throughout the four days, which culminates in an intense mass casualty exercise. Bushmaster serves as the final exam for USU students. For the international participants, it provides them with skills and abilities they can immediately put into practice in their own deployment settings.

After completing the exercise, many of the international students expressed their gratitude for this experience, including Lieutenant (OF-1) Nicholas Andrae, a medical student from Germany. When he first learned of the opportunity, he was excited and knew he wanted to participate.

“The experience was intense … I don’t know when was the last time I learned so much on so many different levels,” Andrae said. “Bushmaster forced all of us to apply lessons we learned.”

Among the many important lessons he learned, perhaps one of Andrae’s biggest takeaways was the way in which they were taught. There was an underlying spirit of cooperation between faculty and students, he explained, and as an educator himself at a medical university, this is something that will influence how he teaches his students.

“It was an honor to serve alongside my U.S.-American counterparts,” he added.

Charis Sung, a British pilot officer and student at the University of Nottingham’s Lincoln Medical School, echoed Andrae’s sentiments.

“It seemed like a unique opportunity to learn skills and develop teamwork in an unfamiliar environment,” Sung said, upon first hearing about the opportunity to participate in Bushmaster. “It looked like a challenge and I was keen to push myself out of my comfort zone, and take part in an exercise I knew I did not have the opportunity to undertake back here in the UK.”

For Sung, Bushmaster was also a chance to share medical skills and techniques, and learn how to create the best collaborative operating procedures – which she plans to take back with her to the UK. Not only will she use these practices in military medicine, she’ll also be able to share these when working in civilian hospitals, not to mention in everyday life, she said. These skills include closed loop communication, being flexible and adaptable, and coping strategies to help perform under pressure, as well as situational awareness in leadership, and ways to best prepare for the unknown and unexpected.

But for Sung, perhaps one of her biggest takeaways was learning to be more decisive, a skill that is difficult to practice, but crucial to develop, she said.

“Bushmaster has taught me the real importance of being decisive, and made me realize this is a skill I have not been able to practice much previously,” she said. “Bushmaster was able to convey urgent situations, replicating realistic environments where decisiveness is pivotal, which enable me to become more confident in this skill in a safe space.”

For the Israeli students at Bushmaster this year, not only did they face the stress of running through intense scenarios of treating combat casualties – as roleplayed by first-year medical students made up with realistic-looking combat injuries – they also endured the uncertainty of not knowing whether their loved ones were safe following the terrorist attacks on their country while they were in the field.

“They were trying to get in touch with their families, and some were unable to do so,” explained Navy Captain (Dr.) Sherri Rudinsky, associate professor and chair in USU’s Department of Military and Emergency Medicine.

Rudinsky shared that the students were under a great deal of stress and had difficulties sleeping as the number of casualties in their country continued to rise. Nonetheless, she said, the Israeli students made the decision to continue their participation in the exercise.

“Their resilience was truly inspiring, and unparalleled,” she said.

Dr. Jonathan Woodson, USU president, stressed the significance of USU’s role in training and educating international partners, and imparting such valuable lessons. Those who participated in Bushmaster, he said, are gaining knowledge and skills that could prove invaluable in responding to situations, much like what is happening in Israel right now.

“At USU, our mission has always been to prepare our students to care for those in harm’s way, both at home and abroad. Our unique and enduring relationships with allied nations, including the Israeli Defense Force medical department, stand as a testament to the power of global collaboration in education,” Woodson said. “This collaboration reaffirms our commitment to fostering international cooperation and sharing knowledge as a means to promote peace and mutual understanding on a global scale.”

• Date Taken: 11.02.2023
• Date Posted: 11.06.2023 09:32
• Story ID: 457258
• Location: US