Photo By Douglas Stutz | Manual heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate and more…Whether handling to a...... read more read more
Whether handling to a faux patient reporting body aches, sore throat and chills or being informed on the sugar tong method to stabilize a fracture, Naval Hospital Bremerton staff members honed their medical response abilities during the recently held July Skills Fair.
Navy Nurse Corps officers and hospital corpsmen had the opportunity to improve upon their suturing techniques, primary assessment procedures, IV start experience and SAM medical splints application.
“We’re doing SAM splints, suturing, IV starts and primary assessments which includes giving several scenarios and from each scenario, what we do is have everyone practice in taking a patient’s vitals, manual blood pressure and manual heartrate to make sure everyone’s skill are up to par,” explained Lt. Essie Gutierrez, Nurse Corps officer and event organizer.
This Skills Fair was the second for Fiscal Year 2025, based upon the Navy surgeon principle of having a ready medical force capable of ensuring there’s a medically ready force.
“A lot of these skills, especially manual blood pressure are not done as part of clinic practice anyway. This is great training to have if it needs to be done operationally. This is all for our military readiness,” Gutierrez said.
The topics presented originated from asking the staff what they thought would be beneficial.
“A lot of our corpsmen right out of school didn’t get to do maybe a few IVs or they just don’t know how to take manual blood pressure. We chose to make it so that they would have these sets and reps, said Gutierrez.
“This is a perfect opportunity for them to build upon,” Gutierrez continued. “We can get so used to using electronics. That can be a failure point. We all have to know how to do hands-on application. On the job training like this really works and involves critical thinking by them at this point.
Gutierrez stressed that although the overwhelming majority of participants were hospital corpsmen and Navy Nurse Corps officer, the fair was open to all interested staff members.
“Anyone who is curious can come and take part. We never know when any of us might be needed. During a mass casualty event we might need everyone’s help. At least having some kind of inkling what these skills are and how they can benefit a patient is valuable,” remarked Gutierrez. “As is getting corpsmen comfortable with these skills. Like suturing. We never get a chance to suture. We’re not surgeons. But these are certain ancillary items they can now have knowledge that could be very beneficial and they’re all having fun doing it. It’s nice to see.”
And the sugar tongs?
“For stabilization of a fracture out in the field, a SAM splint is great. It’s lightweight and easy to use. Now, imagine you’re drinking tea. You’re trying to put a sugar cube in your tea and you go to the little bowl with the cubes and you pick it up and you use the available tongs, right? That’s how you want the shape of the splint before you apply it, such as for a proximal humerus fracture [break in upper bone part of the arm] or ulna and radius fractures [forearm]. Sometimes in the elbow, too,” said Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Jordan McCormack, orthopedic technician.
The Skills Fair training can also augment such crucial hospital corpsmen training as Tactical Combat Casualty Care. TCCC is an operational necessity for all corpsmen and is specifically designed to simulate the unique challenges and conditions on the field of battle in handling traumatic injuries.
Such knowledge gained can - and will - be knowledge used.
“This is outstanding training. A great opportunity for our corpsmen to grown by practicing and training on skills they might not normally do. They can learn a lot by taking advantage of this hands-on training,” commented Senior Chief Hospital Corpsman John Buxton, Health Services Directorate leading chief petty officer.
| Date Taken: | 07.18.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 07.18.2025 13:43 |
| Story ID: | 543228 |
| Location: | BREMERTON, WASHINGTON, US |
| Web Views: | 91 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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