What’s New with Tactical?

ACEP is approaching, and as many of you are aware the in person portions have been cancelled. What it will look like this year is yet to be determined, but we still plan to host our section meeting to our best extent.

Training program

National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians- Tactical Emergency Medical Care

The 2^nd edition of NAEMT's Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (TECC) course teaches EMS practitioners and other prehospital providers how to respond to and care for patients in a civilian tactical environment.

The course presents the three phases of tactical care and integrates parallel EMS nomenclature:

• Hot Zone/Direct Threat Care that is rendered while under attack or in adverse conditions.
• Warm Zone/Indirect Threat Care that is rendered while the threat has been suppressed but may resurface at any point.
• Cold Zone/Evacuation Care that is rendered while the casualty is being evacuated from the incident site. 

The 16-hour classroom course includes all new patient simulations and covers the following topics:

• Hemorrhage control including immediate action drills for tourniquet application throughout the course
• Complete coverage of the MARCH assessment
• Surgical airway control and needle decompression
• Strategies for treating wounded responders in threatening environments
• Caring for pediatric patients
• Techniques for dragging and carrying victims to safety; and
• A final, mass-casualty/active shooter event simulation.

NAEMT's TECC course is endorsed by the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma, is consistent with the current guidelines established by the Committee on TECC (Co-TECC), and meets all of the updated National Tactical Emergency Medical Support Competency Domains. This course is accredited by CAPCE for 16 hours of continuing education credit, and recognized by NREMT.

NAEMT is a recognized education partner of the Co-TECC. The Co-TECC establishes guidelines for the provision of prehospital care to injured patients during a tactical incident. The Co-TECC neither creates curriculum for the prehospital provider, nor does it endorse the curriculum of other organizations. Visit NAEMT home website.

International Operational Medicine

• We want to congratulate Dr. Amado Baez who was recently the recipient of a grant for his work with Development of a Prehospital Care and Operational Medicine Virtual Gran Rounds and Educational Resources Web-Repository for Latin American Providers. The LATAM V-OpMed project. The ACEP Board of Directors accepted his proposal late June 2020

Product Review

• Advice on the Use of Masks in the Context of COVID-19: Interim Guidance
• This update from WHO gives very nice basic guidelines on mask handling and safety. It lays out basic use procedures that will be helpful to hand out to TEMS personnel as well as LEO’s as well for general knowledge.
• “Advice on the Use of Masks in the Context of COVID-19: Interim Guidance, 6 April 2020.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, 1 Jan. 1970, apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/331693.

Featured Article

This was the JSOM Summer 2020 featured article reviewing the cost of each step when applying tourniquets to patients with severe hemorrhage.

• Kragh JF Jr, Aden JK 3rd, Dubick MA. Step Duration Effects on Blood Loss in Simulated Designs of Tourniquet Use Procedure. J Spec Oper Med. 2020;20(2):76-82. - Download PDF

Keegan Bradley MD, EMT-T
Co-Editor