Courtesy Photo | Six Religious Ministry Teams across Guam came together for a Trauma Team Integration...... read more read more
AGANA HEIGHTS, Guam — U.S. Naval Medical Readiness and Training Command Guam partnered with Joint Region Marianas to conduct a trauma team integration training for chaplains at U.S. Naval Hospital Guam on April 17, 2025.
Religious Ministry Teams (RMTs) stationed across Guam share area-wide duty response responsibilities at U.S. Naval Hospital (NH) Guam. This necessitates training that extends beyond the command’s two chaplains and one religious programs specialist. To address this need, command chaplain Lt. Cmdr. Jason Hart and Lt. Stephanie Houser, Expeditionary Resuscitative Surgical System (ERSS) platform lead and emergency medicine physician assistant for NH Guam, collaborated to implement the training. Their goal was to enhance trauma readiness, improve patient care outcomes and align with the Surgeon General’s 2025 Navy Medicine Campaign Order by integrating religious ministry into trauma response. The 2025 Navy Medicine Campaign Order aims to prepare and posture Navy Medicine for sustained health service support in high-intensity combat operations.
Six RMTs representing three service branches within Joint Region Marianas participated in the event. Houser introduced the hospital’s three trauma bays and outlined the roles and expectations of each trauma team member. Hart provided guidance on best practices for supporting providers during death notifications, administering end-of-life rites in trauma settings and recognizing the cultural nuances of grief in the local population served by the hospital.
“Chaplains are often trained to provide care in the expectant area during emergency medical response,” Hart said. “Yet in Guam, chaplains are regularly alongside trauma teams providing care to patients with life-threatening injuries in our trauma bays. This training highlights the importance of pastoral care in the immediate zone of emergency medical response and potential mass casualty incidents.”
The training emphasized the spiritual and emotional needs of both patients and medical personnel during trauma events. Chaplains play a crucial role in post-event debriefings by offering emotional support, promoting team cohesion and helping to improve future performance and outcomes. Houser and Hart highlighted the use of the STOP5 model for hot debriefs — a five-minute structured reflection focused on reviewing the event, acknowledging successes, identifying areas for improvement and establishing accountability through actionable follow-ups. Chaplains were equipped to identify signs of critical incident stress in trauma team members and to facilitate the spiritual dynamics inherent to trauma care during debriefs.
Chaplain David Alexander, Naval Medical Forces Pacific chaplain, highlighted the program’s success at NMRT Guam as the reason for its wider adoption as a best practice across NMFP. He noted the innovative training is proving highly valuable and that NMFP is actively expanding the program to equip chaplains with the skills needed to provide essential spiritual support during all types of trauma situations.
As military medicine attempts to bridge the inevitable decline of medical capabilities during peacetime interims known as the “Walker dip,” chaplains also need realistic training to sharpen their pastoral care skills to support warfighters and military healthcare professionals. Capt. Virginia Damin, U.S. NMRTC Guam executive officer, has been a strong advocate for this training, recognizing its long-term benefits.
“Vice Admiral Alisdair Walker, former surgeon general of the British armed forces, described ‘the cyclical pattern in military medicine where advancements in casualty care made during wartime are often lost during peacetime, leading to a decline in medical readiness for future conflicts,’” Damin said. “This phenomenon is known as the ‘Walker Dip’. Though it applies directly to casualty care, I think the same phenomenon has occurred across the military. The novel approach to integrate chaplains into trauma teams is an invaluable opportunity to mitigate the ‘Walker Dip’ and prepare them to support warfighters and medical providers in future conflicts.”
The training initiative supports NH Guam’s broader objective to deliver holistic care and advance toward Level III trauma center verification by the American College of Surgeons, while bolstering the readiness of medical forces.
| Date Taken: | 05.01.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 05.01.2025 14:21 |
| Story ID: | 496703 |
| Location: | AGANA HEIGTS, GU |
| Hometown: | AGANA, GU |
| Web Views: | 39 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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