February 22, 2022
A common pain point across the military is to find the time for an entire unit to be taken out of commission for continuing education and recertification requirements. Naval Special Warfare (NSW), at Coronado Naval Base in California, made a challenging request for an all-inclusive continuing education package where 20 active duty SEALs, 5 DEA SRT agents, and 1 USAF Pararescueman could obtain BLS, ACLS, and PALS recertification via Paramedic refresher curriculum, a Cadaveric Lab for hands-on skills practice, and field scenario-based training exercises that incorporated both TCCC (Tactical Combat Casualty Care) and PFC (Prolonged Field Care) phases of care.
This extent of training within such tight time constraints, required strict planning to ensure all educational goals were met for each student. Exact training locations for each day were unknown until the day prior, requiring SimWerx to come prepared to set up in all possible training environments.
However, the SimWerx team was up for the challenge! We loaded up our refrigerated trailer with multiple specially preserved cadavers and all the equipment, supplies, and power generation capability required for an austere training event and drove the 1,000+ miles from Denver to San Diego.
Days 1-2: Students attended a half-day paramedicine lecture series followed by a half-day cadaveric skills lab where they were given the opportunity to practice and be evaluated on life-saving skills and surgical interventions; such as tourniquet application, finger thoracostomy, surgical cricothyrotomy, IO placement, needle decompression, intubations, and difficult airway management.
Day 3: Students attended a full-day lecture series, led by SimWerx training partner Ragged Edge Solutions (RES), focusing on the adaptations of paramedicine for Prolonged Field Care
Day 4: Students were put through 8 hours of field scenario-based training where they took care of patients, played by role players with realistic moulage injuries, through the various phases of care in austere environments with limited resources available.
From enhanced cadaveric training offerings such as SALAD (Suction Assisted Laryngoscopy and Airway Decontamination) and Hemorrhage Control simulations to coordinating role players and trauma moulage artists; from start to finish SimWerx was able to deliver a seamless all-inclusive training package that enabled all training requirements to be met within NSW’s tight time constraints.
The initial pilot with NSW was a huge success and SimWerx plans to roll this program to other units across the country on a recurring basis as continuing education is needed.
Testimonials from Students: "The training received through this course inspires confidence for myself to know I can execute my duties downrange if I ever get called upon."
"This training really helped me further my medical skill and will help save lives in the future."
"This course delivered extremely realistic medical training to us, thank you so much."
"Thank you for the opportunity to train! We are so grateful! This training will save lives in the future!"
"Thank you so much. Learned a lot of skills that will hopefully be used to save the lives of my military and/or law enforcement teammates if I ever needed to."
"The information and training learned this week will not only save our lives, but the lives of others. Thank you so much."
"This will help save lives overseas. Thank you so much."
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