TCCC SKILLS, TRAINING & EDUCATION

Perceptions of Simulator- and Live Tissue-Based Combat Casualty Care Training of Senior Special Operations Medics.

Bukoski A, Uhlich R, Bowling F, Shapiro M, Kerby JD, Llerena L, Armstrong JH, Strayhorn C, Barnes SL; University of Missouri Combat Casualty Training Consortium.

Mil Med. 2018 Mar 1;183(suppl_1):78-85

The relative effectiveness of live tissue (LT)- and inanimate simulation (SIM)-based training of combat medics is the subject of intense debate. A structured interview was utilized to determine the training modality preferences and the perceived value of LT- and SIM-based combat casualty care training of 25 senior special operations medics. Participant demographics and training experience, Likert scale-based assessment of training modality value, selection of preferred training modality for 11 combat casualty care procedures, and 12 open-ended questions probing opinions of the limitations and benefits of LT- and SIM-based training were collected from this convenience sample. All participants indicated significant combat medic experience and training. Of the 11 procedures questioned, LT was identified as superior for seven with mixed responses for the remaining four. LT was consistently identified as an essential training modality with tactile sensation and the physiologic responses of animal models to injury and therapy as primary benefits. Across procedures, 100% of participants felt that LT should be used in combat casualty care training and 96% felt that SIM should also be utilized. Repeatability and accuracy of size/weight were identified as key benefits of SIM training. Respondents reported that capability, self-confidence, success, and resilience of the combat medic all benefitted from LT training. The overriding theme was the general superiority of LT with recognition of the unique and complementary benefits of SIM.

An Evaluation of Navy En Route Care Training Using a High-Fidelity Medical Simulation Scenario of Interfacility Patient Transport.

DeForest CA, Blackman V, Alex JE, Reeves L, Mora A), Perez C, Maddry J, Selby D, Walrath B

Mil Med. 2018 Mar 14. doi: 10.1093/milmed/usx129. [Epub ahead of print]

Introduction: Military prehospital and en route care (ERC) directly impacts patient morbidity and mortality. Provider knowledge and skills are critical variables in the effectiveness of ERC. No Navy doctrine defines provider choice for patient transport or requires standardized provider training. Frequently, Search and Rescue Medical Technicians (SMTs) and Navy Nurses (ERC RNs) are tasked with this mission though physicians have also been used. Navy ERC provider training varies greatly by professional role. Historically, evaluations of ERC and patient outcomes have been based on retrospective analyses of incomplete data sets that provide limited insight on ERC practices. Little evidence exists to determine if current training is adequate to care for the most common injuries seen in combat trauma patients.

Materials and Methods: Simulation technology facilitates a standardized patient encounter to enable complete, prospective data collection while studying provider type as the independent variable. Information acquired through skill performance observation can be used to make evidence-based recommendations to improve ERC training. This IRB approved multi-center study funded through a Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program grant from the Combat Casualty Care Intramural Research Joint En Route Care portfolio evaluated Navy ERC providers. The study evaluated 84 SMT, ERC RN, and physician participants in the performance of critical and secondary actions during an immersive, high-fidelity, patient transport simulation scenario focused on the care during an interfacility transfer. Simulation evaluators with military ERC expertise, blinded to participant training and background, graded each participant's performance. Inter-rater reliability was calculated using Cohen's Kappa to evaluate concordance between evaluator assessments. Categorical data were reported as frequencies and percentages. Performance attempt and accuracy rates were compared with likelihood ratio chi-square or Fisher's exact test where appropriate. Tests were two-tailed and we considered results significant, that is, a difference not likely due to chance exists between groups, if p < 0.05. Confidence intervals were used to present overlap in performance between provider types.

Results: Critical and secondary actions were assessed. A majority of providers completed at least one of the critical life-saving actions; only one participant completed all critical actions. Evaluation of critical actions demonstrated that a tourniquet was applied by 64% of providers, blood products administered by 46%, needle decompression performed by 51%, and a complete handoff report performed by 48%. Assessment of secondary actions demonstrated analgesic was accurately administered by 24% of all providers, and 44% reinforced the "hemorrhaging amputation site dressing."

Conclusion: Over 98% of participants failed to properly perform all critical actions during the interfacility transfer scenario, which in a real-life combat casualty transport scenario could result in a preventable death. Study results demonstrate serious skill deficits among all types of Navy ERC providers. These data can be used to improve the training of Navy ERC providers, ultimately improving care to injured soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines.

 

Brief, Web-based Education Improves Lay Rescuer Application of a Tourniquet to Control Life-threatening Bleeding.

Craig A. Goolsby, MD, MEd, Kandra Strauss-Riggs, MPH, Victoria Klimczak, Kelly Gulley, MPH, Luis Rojas, MS, Cassandra Godar, MS, Sorana Raiciulescu, MSc, Arthur L. Kellermann, MD, MPH, and Thomas D. Kirsch, MD, MPH

Academic Emergency Medicine (AEM) Education and Training Journal

Objective: The objective was to determine whether brief, Web-based instruction several weeks prior to tourniquet application improves layperson success compared to utilizing just-in-time (JiT) instructions alone.

Background: Stop the Bleed is a campaign to educate laypeople to stop life-threatening hemorrhage. It is based on U.S. military experience with lifesaving tourniquet use. While previous research shows simple JiT instructions boost laypeople’s success with tourniquet application, the optimal approach to educate the public is not yet known.

Methods: This is a prospective, nonblinded, randomized study. Layperson participants from the Washington, DC, area were randomized into: 1) an experimental group that received preexposure education using a website and 2) a control group that did not receive preexposure education. Both groups received JiT instructions. The primary outcome was the proportion of subjects that successfully applied a tourniquet to a simulated amputation. Secondary outcomes included mean time to application, mean placement position, ability to distinguish bleeding requiring a tourniquet from bleeding requiring direct pressure only, and self-reported comfort and willingness to apply a tourniquet.

Results: Participants in the preexposure group applied tourniquets successfully 75% of the time compared to 50% success for participants with JiT alone (p < 0.05, risk ratio = 1.48, 95% confidence interval = 1.21–1.82). Participants place tourniquets in a timely fashion, are willing to use them, and can recognize wounds requiring tourniquets.

Conclusions: Brief, Web-based training, combined with JiT education, may help as many as 75% of laypeople properly apply a tourniquet. These findings suggest that this approach may help teach the public to Stop the Bleed.

Critical Care Performance in a Simulated Military Aircraft Cabin Environment.

McNeill MM

Crit Care Nurse. 2018 Apr;38(2):18-29

BACKGROUND: Critical Care Air Transport Teams care for 5% to 10% of injured patients who are transported on military aircraft to definitive treatment facilities. Little is known about how the aeromedical evacuation environment affects care.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the effects of 2 stressors of flight, altitude-induced hypoxia and aircraft noise, and to examine the contributions of fatigue and clinical experience on cognitive and physiological performance of the Critical Care Air Transport Team.

METHODS: This repeated measures 2 × 2 × 4 factorial study included 60 military nurses. The participants completed a simulated patient care scenario under aircraft cabin noise and altitude conditions. Differences in cognitive and physiological performance were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance. A multiple regression model was developed to determine the independent contributions of fatigue and clinical experience.

RESULTS: Critical care scores (P = .02) and errors and omissions (P = .047) were negatively affected by noise. Noise was associated with increased respiratory rate (P = .02). Critical care scores (P < .001) and errors and omissions (P = .002) worsened with altitude-induced hypoxemia. Heart rate and respiratory rate increased with altitude-induced hypoxemia; oxygen saturation decreased (P < .001 for all 3 variables).

CONCLUSION: In a simulated military aircraft environment, the care of critically ill patients was significantly affected by noise and altitude-induced hypoxemia. The participants did not report much fatigue and experience did not play a role, contrary to most findings in the literature.

Biological Response to Stress During Battlefield Trauma Training: Live Tissue Versus High-Fidelity Patient Simulator.

Peng HT, Tenn C, Vartanian O, Rhind SG, Jarmasz J, Tien H, Beckett A; LT-SIM study group.

Mil Med. 2018 Mar 14. Epub ahead of print

Introduction: Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) training imposes psychophysiological stress on medics. It is unclear whether these stress levels vary with the training modalities selected. It is also unclear how stress levels could have an impact on medical performance and skill uptake. Materials and Methods: We conducted a pilot study to compare the effects of live tissue (LT) with a high-fidelity patient simulator (SIM) on the level of stress elicited, performance, and skill uptake during battlefield trauma training course in an operating room (OR) and in a simulated battlefield scenario (field). In the report, we studied the effects of training modalities and their changes on stress levels by measuring different biomarkers (salivary amylase, plasma catecholamines, and neuropeptide Y) at various time points during the trauma training course.

Results: We found that the training resulted in significant psychophysiological stress as indicated by elevated levels of various biomarkers relative to baseline immediately after both OR and field assessment (p < 0.05). Compared with pre-OR levels, the LT training in the OR resulted in significant increases in the plasma levels of epinephrine, norepinephrine, and neuropeptide (p = 0.013, 0.023, 0.004, respectively), whereas the SIM training in the OR resulted in significant increases in the plasma levels of norepinephrine and neuropeptide (p = 0.003 and 0.008). Compared with pre-field levels, we found significant increases in plasma epinephrine concentration in the SIM group (p = 0.016), plasma norepinephrine concentration in the LT group (p = 0.015), and plasma neuropeptide Y concentration in both LT (p = 0.006) and SIM groups (p = 0.029). No differences in the changes of biomarker levels were found between LT and SIM groups in the OR and field. Compared with pre-field levels, the testing on the same modality as that in the OR in the simulated battlefield resulted in significant increases in norepinephrine and neuropeptide levels (p = 0.013 and 0.015), whereas the testing on different modalities resulted in significant increases in amylase, epinephrine, and neuropeptide levels (p = 0.016, 0.05, 0.018, respectively). There was a significantly larger increase in plasma norepinephrine concentration (p = 0.031) and a trend toward a greater increase in the salivary amylase level (p = 0.052) when the field testing involved a different modality than the OR compared with when OR and field testing involved the same modality. Although most of the biomarkers returned to baseline levels after 24 h, plasma norepinephrine levels remained significantly higher regardless of whether field testing occurred on the same or different modality compared with OR (p = 0.040 and 0.002).

Conclusion: TCCC training led to significant increase in psychophysiological stress, as indicated by elevated levels of various biomarkers. The training modalities did not result in any differences in stress levels, whereas the switch in training modalities appeared to elicit greater stress as evidenced by changes in specific biomarkers (amylase and norepinephrine). A comparative study with a larger sample size is warranted.

Benefit of Critical Care Flight Paramedic-Trained Search and Rescue Corpsmen in Treatment of Severely Injured Aviators.

Snow RW, Papalski W, Siedler J, Drew B, Walrath B.

J Spec Oper Med. Spring 2018;18(1):19-22.

During routine aircraft start-up procedures at a US Naval Air Station, an aviation mishap occurred, resulting in the pilot suffering a traumatic brain injury and the copilot acquiring bilateral hemopneumothoraces, a ruptured diaphragm, and hepatic and splenic contusions. The care of both patients, including at point of injury and en route to the closest trauma center, is presented. This case demonstrates a benefit from advanced life-saving interventions and critical care skills beyond the required scope of practice of search and rescue medical technicians as dictated by relevant instructions.