We have recently reviewed these protocols for content and purpose with our Advisory Council and have determined that they are the right product for our force. Given the historical debate about what level our Medics will function, these orders give us the right blend of top cover to answer the ambiguous area between trauma and definitive care. As they developed, the most significant tenet of these protocols was the need to extend and cover the deployment capability of the Medic. Recognizing that this need had inherent liabilities both with standards of care and practical training gaps, the Version 3 protocols are delivered to you to help you achieve your mission. While directive in nature, they recognize that the deployed expectations for the SOCM are significant and grow with the Lines knowledge of your unusual skill sets. Terminally, it's a certainty that at points in your deployment you will be presented with urgent medical situations that are beyond your training base. Application of these protocols will enable you to make the best decision without having to second guess any patient management. At the end of the day these 47 scenarios are on paper because they have all happened in a forward setting without the ability to immediately punt. Follow them to the best of your ability. They will kick start the care plan and if you read them all to ground you will see that the end state for all deteriorating patients is evacuation. As time, the AO, and the GWOT evolve and change these need to be treated as a living documents. Review, with feedback, is necessary and critical to keeping these pertinent. At the time of printing we have over 800 Combat Medics in service. These should be known to every one of them. We will ensure that your leadership does its part. We need you to ensure that we are being given the ground truth without varnish regarding their application. Ꭿ. Colonel Rocky Farr (USA) 나 Master Chief Glenn Mercer (USN) SOCOM Surgeons Office glenn.mercer@socom.mil 813/826-5049 UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA SEP 1207 07-0358P ALDERMAN-GOV'T DOCUMENTS 1 INTRODUCTION CPT Steve Briggs, SP, APA, MPAS-C In Volume 10, Issue 8 (2006) edition of the Military Medical/NBC Technology, the USSOCOM Surgeon, Colonel Rocky Farr, was the cover feature. The article was a question and answer session that focused on "Ensuring Medical Care to the SOF Standard." Some questions posed to him included challenges facing SOF medicine, the disparity within the various USSOCOM components and Research and Development, Title X, and other responsibilities germane to SOF medicine. COL Farr addressed many different issues to include the Command Medic Certification Program, Tactical Combat Casualty Care initiative and medical equipage of SOF. For more information on this article you can go to http://www.military-medical-technology.com/. Over the last twenty plus years, there have been issues and incidents that have shaped the face of SOF medicine. In this edition, the main effort is to get out the changes in the Tactical Medical Emergency Protocols (TMEP) and publish the accompanying TMEP drug list. In addition, I want to share with you some of the things that have affected the decisions and formation of the Command Medic Certification Program. When I started the "Q-Course" 25 years ago, the course was divided into three phases much as it is today. The prerequisite for attending the course to become a medic was that you needed to have attended the 91B (Combat Medic) course. The medical training conducted during Phase Two was further divided into three phases. The first phase of the medical training (300F1) was conducted at Fort Sam Houston, TX. Upon successful completion of the course, you went on rotation to one of the Army's many different hospitals and then finally to the "Medlab" at Fort Bragg, NC. Upon completing Phase Two of your medical training, you finished up your team training (Phase Three) and graduated as a 91BS: MOS or Military Occupational Skill 91B (medic) with an additional identifier S (Special Forces). During my time as an instructor at the course in the early and then mid 1980s, training at "Med-lab" was temporarily shut down because of someone's concern about certain medical procedures that our medics were receiving training on. Questions arose about protocols and the lack of certification with known accrediting organizations. Most training was based primarily on mission requirements as seen by the eye and the experience of the instructors. At times, the standards were vague. In order to standardize training, many instructors adopted the most current civilian standards (or their most current read). Change can be good; the days of failing out because of instructor bias is gone. Our SOF schoolhouses abide by the training command's regulations; Air Education and Training Command (AETC) for the Air Force program and the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) regulate the Joint Special Operations Medical Training Center (JSOMTC). The overall excellence and quality control measures for training our SOF medical forces are constantly evolving. Many of the protocols and requirements imposed in the training cycle serve to set standards, enhance the value of training, diminish training accidents, or/and mitigate unwanted publicity. Even so, in the past three years I have found myself having to respond to a few congressional inquiries or Commander's requests for information in reference to medical training issues/incidents, allegations, and misperceptions concerning some sort of SOF medical training. Most of these inquiries have centered on sustainment or decentralized training at unit levels versus that of our schoolhouses. Even though innocent and with the best of intentions, some actions may have much further implications that can affect our training centers. Therefore, some snippets of training information have been included for those desiring to conduct medical training at their unit levels. SOF medical training has been, and always will be, centered on preparing our medics to conduct the essential task required to successfully complete the Commander's mission profiles. Where applicable, civilian standards of care will be infused into the training and where civilian standards are impractical, we will establish our own standard of care. Over time, the similarity/disparity of both civilian and military standards have waxed and waned and evolved. A timeline of the National Registry of Emergence Medical Technicians (NREMT) evolution with associated comments as to where the military and SOF medicine stood during the same time period has been included in this Training Supplement. The realm of science and medicine has dras |