Combat Lifesaver vs. EMT/Medic

[Luno]

OMG, I think I almost spit my black coffee and unfiltered cigarette on my 68Ws... I'm stealing that line for my signature!!!

 

[Ace 227]

Yaaaa.. IDK how I feel about that.. It just seems to me that tactical emergency care has it's own special and unique specialized niche that doesn't (or maybe shouldn't?) overlap too much with civvy medical treatments..

I like my coffee black, my cigarettes unfiltered, and my 68Ws trained for combat. Maybe I'm an closed-minded old hag, but I think if E's and O's want to treat civvys, they should join the Navy.

I agree with your sentiment, however the reality is 68W is the second largest MOS in the Army and is a jack of all trades in the medical field. The amount f combat your typical 68W sees is very, very small compared to the amount of routine illness and injury he sees as a line medic. Hospital and TMC medics see even less and CSH and BAS medics see a lot of trauma, not so much combat. But, as the saying goes, you'll learn it at your unit. Go to a hospital, learn meds and sutures, etc. Go to a line unit, go to classes like ITLS, PHTLS, ATLS, etc.

 

[RocketMedic]

Household, even an infantry medic has far more in common with a medical assistant than an EMT or paramedic.

 

[Household6]

Household, even an infantry medic has far more in common with a medical assistant than an EMT or paramedic.

Because infantry medics and MAs can follow orders. :rofl:

I keeed, I keeed..

I do appreciate all yous taking the time to answer my questions. I never was (and still am not) involved with the medical unit on post. I was a sparky, DH is a tanker. Now that I'm the Household 6, my duties are limited to FRG meetings and uniform alterations.

 

[NeverSayDie]

I graduated out of Ft. Sam in November, and LPC was 2 weeks. Actually still have my LPC workbook that I've going back through studying for the EFMB. curriculum was:

basic abdominal primary care
basic ortho primary care
basic resp. primary care
basic wound primary care
sterile technique
injections & venipuncture
pharmacology and meds administration
sick call & medical documentations

obviously not a LPN degree, but I liked it. If anything it was too watered down.

As far as the AEMT qualification goes, I say do what SOCM does for the 18Ds and W1's that want their NREMT-P: List us as AEMT's in "the state of DoD" or whatever it is in the NREMT system and let us challenge for it out of pocket. Just a thought.

 

[Handsome Robb]

Because infantry medics and MAs can follow orders. :rofl:

I know your kidding but I've never understood this whole argument...in EMS all we do is follow written and sometimes verbal orders just like any MA, RT, LPN or RN does...we just generally don't get them directly from the doctor's mouth, rather their hand/keyboard.

 

[Vegasmedic]

When I was in Iraq in 05 we didnt have a medic assigned to our unit since I was with XVIII ABN corps (Im an infantryman who was tasked out). Since I was the only CLS who was a civi EMT I was made the unofficial medic. Was cool being able to do more medical stuff than your avarage CLS and yet still be an up gunner during convoys and patrols.

 

[hogwiley]

Combat lifesaver vs EMT/Medic?

In a cage match my money is on the combat lifesaver. In a civilian EMS job I'll stick with the EMT/medic.

 

[Akulahawk]

Combat lifesaver vs EMT/Medic?

In a cage match my money is on the combat lifesaver. In a civilian EMS job I'll stick with the EMT/medic.

I would suggest to you that there is a large difference between a paramedic and someone who has combat lifesaver. I was just looking through a combat lifesaver course and found that there is nothing in the the course that is out of my scope of practice as a paramedic.

In my humble estimation, I would expect that a paramedic that has taken or at least understands the concepts of tactical casualty combat care would be able to implement all of the care necessary that a combat lifesaver can, and then some.

After all, combat lifesaver was designed to be an adjunct to the combat medic. As such, the combat medic (not paramedic) has a greater understanding of what is necessary to provide care in the tactical environment.

The EMT Basic does not have authorization to provide some skills that the CLS trained provider can, namely intravenous lines/locks and the needle decompression. Obviously, this does not extend to all types of EMT Basics, but the NREMT-B skill set does not normally include those.

Therefore, in a situation that would call for someone to be able to provide care at or greater than the level of the CLS, I would put my money on the paramedic. As for EMT vs. CLS, if it does not involve intravenous line placement or needle decompression of a chest, it would probably be a wash.

In the civilian world, CLS is woefully inadequate.

 

[Highlander]

Not sure if any one has info but the swat teams near me are hiring paramedics and training them in something called tactical medicine.

 

[RocketMedic]

Luno and Veneficus dissected this concept a long time ago and found it wanting.

 

[Biggs]

sounds interesting.

 

[Akulahawk]

The tactical medic idea is not a bad one, but it's very easy to poorly execute. I think a lot depends upon the expected mission. The TM could be tasked with only providing care the the team, or they could be tasked to provide care to anyone around them. I wouldn't be surprised if the basic idea was adopted from the Army or Marine Corps where Medics or Corpsmen are embedded with ground combat units, and the TM would be similarly embedded and expected to perform similar casualty-aid tasks. Another issue with the TM idea is that unlike the Combat Medic/Corpsman whose tasks & mission is essentially the same no matter where you go, the TM can embedded with the team as a shooter, non-shooter, placed in the "warm zone" with a very short response time, staged out away from the scene and called in as needed. Which role is the TM expected to fill? If you think about it, that's a LOT of different types of schooling that a TM would have to go through to understand that assignment or role for that team. You just can't cookie cutter train TMs for one role/profile and expect that they'll do well in the others.

Then there's this whole scope of practice issue to talk about. Is the TM expected to be "just" a Paramedic, or will the scope of practice be extended to other procedures? What authorization would they have if state law doesn't allow for extensions of their scope?

As I said, TM is one of those ideas that sounds good, has some upsides, but is just way too easy to foul up and implement poorly.

 

[Carlos Danger]

The tactical medic idea is not a bad one, but it's very easy to poorly execute.

This times 10,000,000,000,000