Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Neil W. McCabe | Observer-coach-trainers with the Medical Readiness and Training Command's 7229th...... read more read more
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[ROCHESTER, Minn.] Medical Readiness and Training Command observer-coach-trainers and support staff from MRTC's Regional Training Site-Medical, Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, provided guidance, equipment and patient-simulation manikins, rickshaw litters and moulage for TeamSTEPPS training held Jan. 26 through Jan. 28 at the Mayo Clinic here for the Soldiers of the 7451st Medical Operations Readiness Unit.
“I love this job,” said Michael Roth, a simulations technician and an instructor at RTS-MED Fort McCoy. The other RTS-MED sites are at Fort Eisenhower, Georgia, and Camp Parks, California.
TeamSTEPPS, which stands for Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety, is a protocol developed for medical professionals based on the lessons learned from pilot miscommunication in the airliner cockpits in post-crash investigations.
The Sandy Park, Pennsylvania, native said he is thrilled to watch the Soldiers go through the Team STEPPS program, beginning with their unpacking the equipment and setting up their stations through to their coming together as teammates.
Roth, who retired from the Army after 21 years, 11 days before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, is a contractor, said he drove from his last duty station at Fort Polk, Louisiana, to begin his job at Fort McCoy.
“A lot of folks get out of the service and move into the private sector and have issues just dealing with whatever the difference between the two. I never had to make that transition,” the retired combat medic said.
Master Sgt. David Shenk, a combat medic with the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey-based 7301st Medical Training Support Battalion, 1st Medical Training Brigade, Medical Readiness and Training Command, served as the noncommissioned officer-chief for this TeamSTEPPS training event.
“The TeamSTEPPS program is a great event for enlisted and officers who have very different civilian jobs to build the teamwork and communication skills needed in a hospital setting,” Shenk said.
“This training also provides very realistic scenarios that these units will see once deployed. It is a wonderful experience for me as an observer-coach-trainer to see how quickly the trained unit comes together,” the master sergeant said.
Shenk, who was formerly the Erie County, New York, director of veterans’ services, said he was grateful for the people and equipment RTS-MED Fort McCoy sent to support the training.
“The RTS-MED continues to be a valuable partner to make the TeamSTEPPS program a success,” he said. “They provide multiple mannequins, moulage supplies, and valuable guidance—without them, the program could not mimic downrange experiences nearly as well.”
Lt. Col. Maria C. Espiritu, the MRTC’s chief of clinical operations, said after the weekend training, the Soldiers should be ready for whatever scenarios they face.
“My goal for soldiers who go through the Mayo TeamSTEPPs training is to be able to effectively communicate and work with any team anytime, anywhere, and in any situation,” she said.
Hinds briefs 7451st MORU Soldiers on AR-MEDCOM transformation
Colonel Angela Hinds, the AR-MEDCOM’s chief of staff, spoke with the 7451st MORU Soldiers and the training cadre just after they started their second session of scenarios.
“I'm very excited to see how you do this afternoon for you guys to see the difference between your teamwork between this morning and by the time you leave,” Hinds said. “I think you'll see a huge progression, which I'm very excited to see and hear about.”
The colonel said to the Soldiers that beyond the Mayo Clinic training, they should be tracking changes in how Big Army is gearing up for Large Scale Combat Operations, or LSCO, and how the military medical community responds, after two decades of counterinsurgency operations.
Hinds said AR-MEDCOM and all military medical professionals have to prepare for patient injuries and challenges, which will resemble the conditions and situations seen in the First World War—as evidenced by the Ukrainian conflict.
“As medical providers, what do you guys look at in the future in that kind of fight?” she asked. “What are the primary differences from a medical perspective treating patients?”
Hinds said in LSCO there would be a 180-degree change. “Higher casualty rates, right? More limited supplies, limited evacuation, prolonged care. If you haven't already been doing the reading about it, you need to start reading through and thinking through that process.
The 7451st MORU Mission Commander Lt. Col Stacey Rodriguez said when she was an ROTC cadet on a nursing scholarship, she joined a summer training program at Landstuhl, between her junior and senior year.
“I was there for a month working in the emergency room for exposure—awesome experience,” the colonel said.
Rodriguez said she has very high expectations for her Soldiers' upcoming Landstuhl mobilization.
“I think we're all looking forward to being a part of the process of treating and managing soldiers and helping them get home or to wherever their next level of care is,” she said.
Landstuhl is a critical military hospital for personnel in action, she said. “It serves patients coming from European theaters, the Middle East, Central Command and Africa Command, so when Soldiers are far forward of those locations, they can have confidence that we will be able to provide the services and treatment they need when they need it.”
Rodriguez said the Joint Base Lewis McChord, Washington-based 7451st Soldiers were honored to attend training at the Mayo Clinic.
“I think the partnership between the Mayo Clinic and the Army Reserve in offering this phenomenal training,” he said.
“We had some very junior Soldiers particularly excited and looking forward to what this experience is going to offer,” the colonel said.
“It really speaks to the investment of both our civilian agencies to help prepare our Soldiers for a variety of different situations, as well as the Army Reserve's, and particularly AR-MEDCOM’s commitment to ensuring we supply ready and trained Soldiers for whatever mission we may be assigned to complete,” she said.
Hinds said she was taken up with the enthusiasm of the 7451st MORU Soldiers.
“They're really focused on team steps and this communication and building communication as a team, learning their roles and responsibilities on this particular mission,” the colonel said.
“I think the confidence is there,” she said. “They have a great commander with Colonel Rodriguez--I think she's going to lead from the front, and the individuals here all seem extremely professional and motivated.”
Major Tiffany Schnakenberg, a suicide prevention liaison with the 7229th Medical Support Unit, Nashville, Tennessee, and one of the OC/T’s for the training said the goal is not to address clinical skills, even though the training is conducted in a clinical setting.
“We are watching other army officers and healthcare professionals go and they're already trained with their clinical skills,” the major said. “What we’re working on at Mayo is helping them develop their communication skills, closed-loop communication and feedback huddles.”
Closed-loop communication is when the listener repeats back information to verify they heard it correctly. If the information is correct, the speaker acknowledges it is correct and the conversation continues. Feedback huddles are short in-place meetings, where team members check in with each other and share situation status.
Schnakenberg said the training experience is heightened being at the Mayo Clinic.
“It’s a little bit awe-inspiring quite honestly, because as healthcare professionals, you hear about the Mayo Clinic, your whole, entire professional career,” the major said.
“To be in that environment and see the area and their training resources that we have, that they have there, even though we're just seeing a very small part,” she said. “We’re very blessed to be able to take part in this.”
In addition to her role as an OC/T, Schnakenberg voiced for the notional patient manikins, when the military personnel inquired about their condition, pain and symptoms.
“You almost have to put yourself in that position—imagine yourself laying on that gurney and when they are touching your spine, if they're asking you: ‘Where are you?’ ‘What’s the date?’ Where are you?,’” the Chattanooga, Tennessee, resident said.
“You almost have to get into that role of that patient,” she said.
“I think things move quickly and you still have to keep that observer and coach and trainer hat on,” she said.
“Even though you're in that role and you're helping them to understand what the patient's going through, you're also looking at the team and saying: ‘What is the best way I can help this team to communicate?’ That’s what we're here for, is to teach them communication,” the major said.
AR-MEDCOM ‘Warrior Medics’ a mainstay supporting Landstuhl’s DWMMC
The 7451st MORU Soldiers are preparing for their mobilization to the Deployed Warrior Medical Management Center, at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, located in the Kaiserslautern district of Rhineland-Palatinate, near the Ramstein Air Base.
The DWMMC mission has been manned almost exclusively by the “Warrior Medics” of the AR-MEDCOM, and since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the center has treated more than 100,000 military personnel. Landstuhl is a 65-bed facility is the largest military hospital outside the United States, and it is the last military hospital in Europe.
During the Global War on Terror, Landstuhl was the landing spot for the serious injuries and illnesses coming out of the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and other theaters. Today, the hospital continues to support theaters in and beyond Europe, including a limited number of Ukrainian military casualties.
The DWMMC mission has been manned almost exclusively by the “Warrior Medics” of the AR-MEDCOM, and since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the center has treated more than 100,000 military personnel. Landstuhl is a 65-bed facility is the largest military hospital outside the United States, and it is the last military hospital in Europe.
Hinds said she visited Landstuhl with Maj. Gen. W. Scott Lynn, the AR-MEDCOM commanding general.
“We did a whirlwind of a visit, and one of our first stops was the DWMMC mission there at Landstuhl, which was an amazing opportunity for one to meet with the commander at Landstuhl and reinforce our mission there as a backfill to the hospital who has a larger role for CENTCOM AOR,” she said.
The U.S. Central Command area of responsibility includes 21 nations, primarily the Middle East, including Egypt, and the independent states in Central Asia of the former Soviet Union, so that the AOR stretches to the borders of China, Russia and India.
The chief of staff said the general is committed to the Landstuhl mission, and that as AR-MEDCOM transforms, the mission is crucial to that transformation.
“General Lynn’s intent of visiting out there with that unit was to emphasize the importance of our strategic partnerships across the entire region and the growth that he sees in our transformation within AR-MEDCOM and AR-MEDCOM’s mission in the growth and capability of Large Scale Combat Operations, in Europe specifically,” she said.
“He’s looking at the Pacific as well, but this particular visit was focused on Europe,” she said. “We had an opportunity to visit with the Medical Regional Command-Europe and the new commanding general.”
AR-MEDCOM Soldier returns to Mayo Clinic, Landstuhl
Staff Sgt. Tasha Cacciotti, a practical nursing specialist, or 68 Charlie, with the Alexandria, Virginia-based 7220th Medical Support Unit, said she went through the TeamSTEPPS training at the Mayo Clinic as an observer-coach-trainer when she was a specialist with the 40th Combat Support Hospital, Fort Meade, Maryland.
Standing in one of the observer booths and watching the Soldiers in the mocked-up intensive care unit, Cacciotti said she remembered watching Soldiers from behind the two-way mirrors.
“Same machines, same layout--it's much calmer back here,” she said.
“You forget people are watching you because you’re so mission-oriented, so that should be your focus; once you’re in task mode, then hopefully you're not tracking the situation with the cameras,” the Fort Washington, Maryland, resident said.
For the majority of her time, the Toronto native said she was working with the trainees. “I was behind the glass sometimes, but mostly down there on the floor, making sure that anything that was verbally transmitted from one person to the next was correct, and they were following the TeamSTEPPS processes.”
The staff sergeant said she was excited to go through the training now as she prepared for her second mobilization to Landstuhl.
Cacciotti said she just got back from a Landstuhl deployment with the 7456 Medical Support Unit, Des Moines, Iowa, in November, when she served as the noncommissioned officer in-charge of the Global Teleconsultation Portal.
The GTP is a Defense Health Agency-approved program that connects military medical professionals in the field with experts, who can give the information downrange providers need to treat patients, which in many cases means the patient does not have to be transferred to Landstuhl, she said.
“The GTP consult manager has to be a nurse,” so I ended up reclassing. I worked as a licensed practical nurse the consult manager now,” she said.
Cacciotti said she her first military occupational specialty is 68 X-ray, which is behavior health specialist, and she hopes to work in that field on the upcoming deployment.
Soldiers from the 7451st MORU are scheduled to deploy to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in the June of 2024 timeframe.
| Date Taken: | 01.14.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 02.15.2024 14:01 |
| Story ID: | 463922 |
| Location: | ROCHESTER, MN, US |
| Web Views: | 69 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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