• Rebekah Cole, Jonathan T Shumaker, Estefania Melo, Kevin J Matthews, James Schwartz, Leslie Vojta, and Sherri L Rudinsky.
• Department of Military and Emergency Medicine, Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA.
• Mil Med. 2023 May 18; 188 (Suppl 2): 566256-62.

IntroductionOperation Bushmaster is a high-fidelity simulation held for fourth-year medical students at the Uniformed Services University. No past research has examined this multi-day simulation's ability to prepare military medical students for the complexities of their first deployment. This qualitative study, therefore, explored Operation Bushmaster's impact on military medical student deployment readiness.MethodsWe interviewed 19 senior military medical personnel serving as faculty members at Operation Bushmaster during October 2022 in order to explore how Operation Bushmaster prepares students for their first deployment. These interviews were recorded and transcribed. Each research team member then coded the transcripts and came to a consensus on the themes and patterns that emerged from the data.ResultsThe following themes described the ways in which Operation Bushmaster prepares military medical students for their first deployment: (1) primes them for the stress of the operational environment; (2) teaches them to navigate austere conditions; (3) facilitates their leadership development; and (4) provides them with a deeper understanding of the military's medical mission.ConclusionOperation Bushmaster immerses students in a realistic, stressful operational environment, challenging them to develop an adaptive mindset and efficacious leadership skills that they will utilize during future deployments.Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States 2023. This work is written by (a) US Government employee(s) and is in the public domain in the US.

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