New medical MOS gives combat medics more training, credentials
By Pfc. Dustin W. Perry
Staff writer
The U.S. ArmyÂ’s military occupational specialty known as the combat medic will soon make a transition to a new MOS known as the 91W, or health care specialist.
The health care specialists will receive extra training at their advanced individual training that will improve their skills both in combat and non-combat situations.
“In the inner cities, the average citizen gets care from an emergency medical technician who responds to their needs, yet the American soldier received his or her care from a combat medic,” said Master Sgt. Carlos Fraire, Medical Activities-Japan chief medical noncommissioned officer.
“Combat medics are just as good, but they weren’t getting the credentials as far as the civilian sector was concerned,” he said.
The transition was initiated by Army surgeon general Lt. Gen. James B. Peake. His intent was to have the first line medic better trained. Peake wanted the medic responding to a soldier to be as qualified, if not more than, a civilian sector EMT. With that in mind, he wanted every combat medic to graduate AIT as a nationally registered EMT.
The National Registry Examination for Emergency Medical Technicians is administered to certify the soldiers as EMTs.
As EMTs, the soldiers are given the skills to provide pre-hospital care that will sustain or save lives in a field environment.
“Some skills they learn from the new course are cardiopulmonary resuscitation certification, triage techniques that allow them to identify life-threatening injuries and how to properly respond to any kind of situation.
“On top of that, they would learn pre-hospital trauma life support. Those two courses complement each other,” said Fraire. “It actually boosts the medic’s mission and their overall capability to respond to emergencies.”
The PHTLS course will teach soldiers advanced techniques that will better prepare them for emergency trauma scenarios, such as advanced airway and trauma movement procedures.
The old AIT for a medic was 10 weeks long, while the new course will be 16 weeks long.
“The old course focused strictly on the clinical aspects of medicine and working in a combat environment, while the new course will incorporate the national registry course for EMT qualification,” said Fraire.
“This will allow them to be combat medics and nationally registered EMTs, and they have credentials that can easily transfer into the civilian world,” he said.
The projected transition date for all combat medics is Oct. 1, 2009.
I think EMT stands for Emergency Medical Tech. They are the guys that pick you up in the ambulance, and provide interim treatment enroute to the hospital.
US Marines Air Medics are also super qualified.
They are trained to do almost everything (paradrop, rappel, scuba) so they can reach the injured in all kinds of transportation.
Our medics have the exact qualifications as the SCDF paramedics. The courses taken by both SAF medics and SCDF paramedics are accredited by the Paramedic Academy of the Justice Institute of British Columbia in Canada.
There are four levels in all, Level I being the most basic, and Level IV being the most advanced.
Even so, I think that the US medics undergo tougher and more rigorous training. From what I've heard, they can do things like clamping arterial haemorrhages (watch Black Hawk Down). They can do all sorts of advanced stuff which our medics don't have the equipment or training for.
