Military medicine
-
The USNS COMFORT (T-AH-20) deployed in support of Enduring Promise 2018 (EP-18) for an 11-week humanitarian mission providing care to the residents of four host nations in Central and South America. The COMFORT provides the capability of providing medical, dental, and surgical care in humanitarian aid missions.
-
Recent downsizing and budgeting issues have led to challenges when attempting to train military health care reserve forces. A specific military unit collaborated with a university simulation center in order to provide more meaningful training experiences that mirrored the deployment operational experience. ⋯ Training using simulation has been invaluable to improving team cohesiveness. Building a training curriculum has generated a new perspective on ways in which military units may train and assess the strengths and opportunities of the unit. The ability to see participants in action allowed for a clearer understanding of the knowledge and skill each participant actually possessed versus what was assumed. The information obtained was invaluable to leadership in determining the true readiness of the unit for deployment. The authors offer the scenarios, lesson plans, and curriculum that they developed to other units that are interested in the training.