Reading another thread I was reminded about the differences between Military medicine for want of another term and the Civilian world. In the Military we have a demographic of younger, fitter people with a lack of chronic illness giving us a narrow spectrum of experience. For example, I never had trouble throwing in an IV until I started in a hospital setting trying to cannulate little old ladies, the morbidly obese, IV drug users with no (usefull) veins or the vascularly compromised.
My thought is that Military Nurses and medics should spend time working in a civilian medical facility, either in a block of time that is repeated at intervals or as a part of the normal working week. As an extension of this idea is that military qualifications (more so for medics/corpsmen) are brought into the mainstream, ie: this type of medic receives the equivalent of the Paramedical Science Degree, this type of Corpsman receives qualifications as a Registered Nurse. It would require an extension of training over a number of years but to my way of thinking this extension of training would give them more knowledge to do their job better and would reward those who stay in for longer with usefull qualifications, (without the debt).
Don't get me wrong, I know that there is a lot of things that Military Medicine does that is not covered anywhere else but how often could a military medic be asked to provide humanitarian assistance or happen upon civilians while on operations that require help?
I'm not addressing the officer side of the house. I agree O's need the added experience of working w/ public institutions for a broader foundation to pull from. As already addressed, these programs exist.
I'm questioning what occurs when the enlisted medic from an infantry bn, who is used to having very little oversight and a wide latitude, is attempting the same treatments they would do in a line unit on the public. The op's idea is good from a certain viewpoint, but would only distract from the intent of having medics and add to an overburdened op-tempo. The military's purpose is not as a conduit for degrees and certifications.
I couldn't disagree more. Enlisted medics don't need to live in a box they need to outbranch develop a wide array of skills which should include a wide array of patient ages, cultures, and medical profiles not just healthy AD persons. Our AD medics aren't a bunch of walking dummies they can adjust their scope of practice as needed to gain more experience. I know that the AF medics graduate from their training and become EMT-Bs and are well versed in that scope of practice and Army medics can/do become LVNs and I know if that they pass the LVN exam they are familiar with that scope of practice. Programs like C-STARS have been around for years and our designed to enhance skills in AD medical personel (officer and enlisted).
Humantarian aide is intergral part of deployments, so I don't see how gaining more training in this area could be seen as an overburden it should be intergrated into all medic training. As far as the comment about not having the military being a conduit for degrees and certifications: The military does owe our veterans certain things instead of waiting on these veterans to get out to gain these benefits, why not intergrate at least a certain amount of training that will coorrelate to the civilain side. There is also no evidence that shows granting more degrees/certifications for enlisted persons causes higher attrition rate. The main reason that military persons get out prior to retirment is quality of life issues.
I think it all boils down to money..as it usually does. The Army medic's primary role is to save lives on the battlefield, and that is what they are trained to do. However, recent years have seen an evolution in warfare, and the additional roles of humanitarian missions during deployment. I believe that the training received by these medics will have to evolve as well, to be able to fully meet this mission requirement.
As far as degrees and certifications, I do not feel that it is the responsibility of the Government (or the tax payers) to provide them for service members. There are already many programs available to both Officers and Enlisted members, that provide the opportunity for furthering their education... both while serving and after separation. Like most things in life, Soldiers get out of these programs what they put into them. I know that when I was enlisted, I was encouraged to take correspondence courses and to utilize the tuition assistance programs... even if i did not choose to do so at that time.
That being said, I do not see any reason why similar training would not warrant offering the civilian certifications for equivalent levels of education/skills training.
There you go... I have firmly made my stand...right on the fence
The military hospitals take care of the soldiers, their family members, and the retirees. We have cradle to grave service. We are exposed to the same population segments as the rest of you.
In addition, the larger military medical centers also serve as trauma centers for the local communities. We get a good chunk of the MVA's, shootings, burns, stabbings, OD's. You name it, we've got it.
On the training side. Medics who are assigned to the various field units are supposed to spend 3 month per year at the fixed facility hospital to maintain their clinical skills. Medical personell are also encourage to alternate their assignments between the FORSCOM side (field unit) and the AMEDD side (fixed facility hospital).
Any deployment is a clinical mecca. You will see and do things you couldn't even imagine, and you will treasure those experiences forever. The military's medics usually have much greater responsibilities than their civillian counterparts. They have the trust and respect of the war fighters who refers to them as "doc".
The military hospitals take care of the soldiers, their family members, and the retirees. We have cradle to grave service. We are exposed to the same population segments as the rest of you.
Our population is filtered out where the sickest patients with the rarest diseases, and patients with histories of little to no consistent health care are not seen very often at military medical facilities. Our military population tends to be healthier (including dependents/retirees), have less comordities, and less problems with obesity than the general public. That is why for one USUHS sends their students on out rotations to civilian medical hospitals, because we just aren't exposed to the wide array of medical problems (especially in the numbers of a large civilian facility) in the military medical facilities. By the way I am doing my clinicals at NNMC considered one of the top 3 Navy facilities, and my USUHS Army cohorts do their clinicals Walter Reed and we all do clinicals at various other civilian facilities for the same reason we just don't get the same exposure to the same population as a moderately large civilian hospital.
This is even more true at overseas locations where family members with moderate to severe medical problems are often not allowed on accompanied tours.
Reading another thread I was reminded about the differences between Military medicine for want of another term and the Civilian world. In the Military we have a demographic of younger, fitter people with a lack of chronic illness giving us a narrow spectrum of experience. For example, I never had trouble throwing in an IV until I started in a hospital setting trying to cannulate little old ladies, the morbidly obese, IV drug users with no (usefull) veins or the vascularly compromised.
My thought is that Military Nurses and medics should spend time working in a civilian medical facility, either in a block of time that is repeated at intervals or as a part of the normal working week. As an extension of this idea is that military qualifications (more so for medics/corpsmen) are brought into the mainstream, ie: this type of medic receives the equivalent of the Paramedical Science Degree, this type of Corpsman receives qualifications as a Registered Nurse. It would require an extension of training over a number of years but to my way of thinking this extension of training would give them more knowledge to do their job better and would reward those who stay in for longer with usefull qualifications, (without the debt).
Don't get me wrong, I know that there is a lot of things that Military Medicine does that is not covered anywhere else but how often could a military medic be asked to provide humanitarian assistance or happen upon civilians while on operations that require help?
Any thoughts?
But how often could a military medic be asked to provide humanitarian assistance or happen upon civilians while on operations that require help??? I thought we did humanitarian missions, and some the missions we do most definitely involve the local populace. We do a lot overseas , and are allowed to do very little here in our own country; unless a natural disaster is involved.
wtbcrna, MSN, DNP, CRNA
5,128 Posts
I couldn't disagree more. Enlisted medics don't need to live in a box they need to outbranch develop a wide array of skills which should include a wide array of patient ages, cultures, and medical profiles not just healthy AD persons. Our AD medics aren't a bunch of walking dummies they can adjust their scope of practice as needed to gain more experience. I know that the AF medics graduate from their training and become EMT-Bs and are well versed in that scope of practice and Army medics can/do become LVNs and I know if that they pass the LVN exam they are familiar with that scope of practice. Programs like C-STARS have been around for years and our designed to enhance skills in AD medical personel (officer and enlisted).
Humantarian aide is intergral part of deployments, so I don't see how gaining more training in this area could be seen as an overburden it should be intergrated into all medic training. As far as the comment about not having the military being a conduit for degrees and certifications: The military does owe our veterans certain things instead of waiting on these veterans to get out to gain these benefits, why not intergrate at least a certain amount of training that will coorrelate to the civilain side. There is also no evidence that shows granting more degrees/certifications for enlisted persons causes higher attrition rate. The main reason that military persons get out prior to retirment is quality of life issues.
Just my two cents...