Page 100 - JSOM Winter 2019

FIGURE 1 Operational personnel trained January 2017–August FIGURE 3 Group of military personnel enlisted to the Volunteer
2018 (including foreign AFs’ troops). Military Corps of the Italian Red Cross after a B-Con training course.

AF, Armed Force; CMV CRI: Volunteer Military Corps of the Italian
Red Cross; LE, law enforcement.

FIGURE 2 Civilian population trained January 2017–August 2018
(including foreigner medical students).

FIGURE 4 A team of emergency medical technicians and medical
students trained to the B-Con protocol. Genova, Italy.

EMT, emergency medical technician; FF, firefighter.

Since the beginning of the Italian campaign, the demand from
the civilian population for the courses has been limited by the
lack of civilian instructors. In Genova, the campaign is finding
that cooperation with the medical university is paying off in a
high number of civilians trained within university structures and simultaneous presence of courses in many areas, to the media
with a growing pool of local B-Con providers and instructors in coverage given to the event, and to the promotional activity
training, especially among medical students(Figures 3 and 4). carried out directly by the volunteers of the CMV CRI; this
allowed us to approach a field seen as far from everyday life.
Discussion
It was also possible to confirm, in the same circumstance, the
The results obtained in Italy with the diffusion of the Stop the manifest interest of Armed Forces and police corps of our
Bleed—Save a Life campaign have been defined as “striking” at country to the project; thanks to the easy access to the de-
the international level. On 15 March 2018, the dedicated com- vices and the relatively limited medical knowledge and skills
mission of the American College of Surgeons published, on the required to understand and replicate the rescue maneuvers, the
telematic portal www.bleedingcontrol.com, the first report of operators used to report to the instructors an increase in their
the diffusion of the campaign, according to which Italy ranked feeling of resilience to deal with adverse events or injuries,
the fifth country in the world and second in Europe, behind which could affect either the operator himself or a teammate.
only Spain, in number of trained learners. These numbers, how-
ever, compared with the data recorded in the Italian CMV CRI Conclusion
database, showed that Armed Forces, police corps, and health
professionists were the main learners interested in the activities, Starting as a small pilot project, the B-Con protocol has then
whereas the spread of the project throughout the general civil- spread across Italy and let the Stop the Bleed campaing rise as
ian population still appeared very limited, although the tools a concrete reality, aiming actually to be developed as a stan-
used for communication (social media) had immediately guar- dard formation for those ones involved in public health, public
anteed a good territorial coverage and sufficient visibility. The security, and military activities.
total gratuity of the activities (according to international regula-
tions) did not appear to captivate the population. This appeared The B-Con program is now a recognized formation in Italy
in contrast to the main objective of the campaign, namely, to for the volunteer enslisted to the CMV CRI, in which a dedi-
spread this knowledge among the civilian population above all. cated coordination group has been established, and it is pro-
gressively spreading among Armed Forces, police, and LE. The
The great importance of the event NSTBD ’18 was therefore future aims in the military field, in help of those operators for
precisely that of allowing for the first time a large number whom specific TCCC training is not provided, will be to push
of civilians, not usually involved in rescue activities, to be- the training in stressing scenarios, to assess the readiness for
come aware of the importance of the project, thanks to the each operator to provide this kind of skills.

98 | JSOM Volume 19, Edition 4 / Winter 2019