Page 151 - JSOM Summer 2018

Competing to Increase Capability

The Team From the Land Down Under’s Experience at the
National Tactical Medicine Competition 2018

1
Timothy Makrides *; Benjamin Davoren 2

Introduction

In late November 2017, a good friend and colleague, Ben executive board members of the Australian Tactical Medical
Davoren, called me to ask if I would join forces with him and Association (ATMA) and we wanted to showcase the tactical
compete as Team TacMed Australia in the National Tactical medical skillsets and capabilities of Australian practitioners.
Medicine Competition 2018 (NTMC 2018), to be held on 13 Moreover, we wanted to ensure that we were ready for the
May 2018 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Ben’s energy for tac- competition on the international stage, and we decided early
tical medicine is infectious and it took very little for him to on that we would need to start a structured program to de-
convince me to join him. With an “I’m in, mate,” we joined velop and compete as a team.
forces and entered.
We commenced training early in January 2018, with a focus
The NTMC is an event hosted by Special Operations Aid & on physical fitness, theoretical understanding of the medical
Rescue (SOAR) that provides tactical medical practitioners guidelines, and practical skills application with a crawl—
from around the world the opportunity to collaborate and walk—run methodology in all aspects of our training.
compete within a community of peers and subject matter Our first training session consisted of a planning meeting. De-
experts. The competition has been developed to foster excel- spite being highly skilled clinicians Ben and I did not routinely
lence and precedes the Special Operations Medicine Scientific work together so our first task was to standardize our train-
Assembly (SOMSA), presenting an opportunity for “iron to ing. We commenced with basic component training to ensure
sharpen iron” as we put our tactical medical skills to the test we understood our strengths and limitations in a bland, low-
against other teams of tactical medical professionals from stress training environment. After this, we progressed onto
around the world. short, high-repetition scenarios, with a short feedback cycle,
breaking them down into zones of care for ease of progression.
Overview of NTMC18 After grasping the concepts of direct threat care with inclu-
Of the 10 teams that competed in the competition, seven were sion of the relevant microskills into the simulation, we moved
from the United States with the other three teams coming from onto another zone of care until reaching prolonged field care
the Netherlands, Canada and Australia. Each competitive training.
team consisted of two medics who augmented a SWAT team It was at this point that we started to build up into long sce-
with a K9 capability. At the start line, a situation brief and key narios, featuring complex cases. In an effort to acknowledge
points of information was provided to the teams. The staff of the complexity, we took two steps back and moved into a low-
SOAR consisted of assessors and role players who drove the stress environment for a few sessions. Once we were satisfied
tactical narrative of the competition. that we could progress, we added complexity, hazards, and un-
expected clinical course until finally we progressed to high-fi-
The competition scoring structure is based on the Tactical Emer- delity, high-stress cases in the month before the competition.
gency Casualty Care (TECC), K9 TECC, and Prolonged Field
Care Guidelines, and teams are expected to master these clinical To facilitate our training, we needed a training location in
guidelines. Additionally, teams are required to have a good un- the city of Townsville, North Queensland. We were fortunate
derstanding of technical rescue and tactical bailout techniques. enough to collaborate with a local university, CQUniversity
(CQU), which runs paramedic undergraduate and postgrad-
Advance to Contact—Lead Up Training uate programs. CQU allowed us to use their state-of-the-art
simulation laboratory and surrounding grounds, which was
Ben and I come from a military and emergency medical ser- an invaluable asset in our clinical preparation. As our relation-
vices (EMS) background and have been involved in training ship with the university grew, senior staff and paramedic stu-
police tactical teams; however, at the time of the competition, dents from the paramedicine department became increasingly
neither of us was serving in an active TEMS unit. We are both involved in our training. The team at the Townsville campus
*Correspondence to tim@tacmedaustralia.com.au
1 Mr Makrides is affiliated with the Queensland Ambulance Service, Queensland, Australia; Australian Tactical Medical Association, Australia;
and TacMed Australia, Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia. Mr Davoren is affiliated with the Australian Tactical Medical Association,
2
Australia; and TacMed Australia, Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia.
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