The new version of TC 8-800 cuts out nearly 100 pages to distill a clear message for medics, NCOs, and officers: train to the modern standard of medicine.
The TC clearly orders the training priorities:
1. TCCC – While trauma is only a small percentage of the patients we will treat, it constitutes the most deaths.
2. LPC – Because we do limited primary care and force health protection as the majority of our work.
3. PCC (PFC) – Because this is an ongoing and likely increasing operational problem that we WILL encounter despite our best planning.
4. CLS training – Because a high-functioning casualty response system is the only way to get to zero preventable deaths.
Combat Medics (and Corpsmen) have a large skillset that overlaps with the NREMT EMT and Advanced EMT scope of education. But an NREMT refresher course is grossly insufficient to ensure medics are ready for the battlefield.
Training must be consistent throughout the year. You wouldn’t fly with a pilot who hasn’t kept up their flight hours. You wouldn’t deploy with a Soldier who only does PT two weeks a year. Don’t allow medics to stagnate except for an annual refresher.
Medical training isn’t just “doing tables.” There is a clear progression from building knowledge, applying that knowledge to skills, and applying those skills to scenarios. Building your training plans to produce optimal outcomes.
Speaking of CLS, if you don’t include your combat lifesavers in medical training and casualty scenarios during unit training, you are setting them and yourself up to fail.
The new TC makes it clear that while the Army produces a variety of training support packages, you should be aggressively pursuing additional sources of up-to-date information from valid sources.
If you are a Medical NCO and you want to conduct more unit-level training, YOU CAN DO IT! Make sure you get the training on the training schedule, make sure you have a roster, and make sure you document the topic(s).
Medics, this is the change we’ve been waiting for. This new document allows us to get good and stay good. Drop your questions below!
