Page 54 - JSOM Fall 2024

were Trauma, Admin. and Air, which were significantly higher medic. NPA and OPA (oropharyngeal airway) were the only
than all other categories (P<.001). The category of lowest items with less than 50% of participants expressing a training
confidence was Infect (P<.001 versus all other categories), need.
followed by DiffDiag, Neuro, and Other (P<.002 to P<.001
versus categories with higher confidence). Overall, the medical knowledge and procedural skill items of
greatest need included Open Globe, Rhabdo, Crush, Pharm,
Figure 2 displays confidence in each medical knowledge and and Canine, followed by TBI (traumatic brain injury), Dive,
procedural skill item, sorted from lowest to highest confi- Altitude, Cornea, Sepsis, each with over 95% endorsement as
dence. Extremity TQ (tourniquet) and NPA (nasopharyngeal an area of training need by study participants.
airway) had (essentially) perfect confidence scores. Nine of the
70 items (13%) were below the scale midpoint (of 3.0). The Exploratory Analysis: SOCM and SOTM
lowest confidence was in PEP (post exposure prophylaxis), SOCM-trained participants were more likely to be SO1 (60%),
followed by RSI (rapid sequence intubation), Meningitis, DVT while SOTM-trained participants were more likely to be
(deep vein thrombosis), Joint Infection, Behavioral Change, SO2 (67%), P<.001. SOCM-trained participants averaged
Open Globe, Fasciotomy, and Testicular Pain. more deployments (mean 3.0 [SD 2.1], range: 1–10) than
SOTM-trained participants (mean 1.3 [SD 0.9], range: 0–3),
Perceived Training Needs P<.001.
Participants responded to the prompt, “I would be more pro-
ficient in my role as a SOF medic if I had additional training Importantly, SOCM-trained and SOTM-trained participants
in the application of . . .” For all categories, more than 75% did not significantly differ in confidence ratings or in perceived
of respondents indicated that additional training would make need for additional training in any of the 9 knowledge and pro-
them more proficient. Air and Trauma were the areas of low- cedural skill categories (each P>.05). SOCM was significantly
est training need, significantly lower than all other categories higher in confidence for altitude sickness and in need for ad-
(P<.05 to P<.001). Env and Crit were categories of highest ditional training in chest tube, while SOTM was significantly
training need, with over 90% of participants indicating that higher in need for additional training in Foley Cath and Smoke
additional training would make them more proficient as a Inh. Given that these contrasts encompassed 158 comparisons
SOF medic, significantly higher (P<.05 to P<.001) than all (9 categories for confidence, 9 categories for needs, 70 items
other categories except for Admin and Infect. for confidence, 70 categories for needs; 9+9+70+70=158) and
the p <.05 threshold assumes a 5% false alarm rate, the ex-
Figure 4 displays rates of perceived training need by item, pected number of false alarms was 7.9 (5% of 158). The ob-
sorted from highest to lowest need. For 62 of 70 medical servation of only 4 statistically significant differences in items,
knowledge and procedural skill items (89%), more than 75% evenly split between SOCM and SOTM, and no statistically
of participants indicated that additional training would make significant differences between SOCM and SOTM in catego-
them more proficient as a SOF medic. For 21 of 70 items ries for confidence or for training needs, indicated that SOCM
(30%), more than 90% of participants indicated that addi- and SOTM are more similar than different in confidence and
tional training would make them more proficient as an SOF in perceived needs.

FIGURE 1 Confidence in knowledge and procedural skills by category.

‡ P<.001 versus all others.
**P<.002 or less versus all higher confidence categories.

52 | JSOM Volume 24, Edition 3 / Fall 2024