Med training (among other things). Austin TX

[Bonesetter]

Mods, please let me know if I'm out of line here.

Along with my primary job, I co-own and instruct for a small indie company here in Austin that provides medical, firearms, navigation, rappel, and related subject matter training. We've always got new classes and events coming on the calendar, and in fact will be hosting an overlander-specific med class in the near future (haven't set a hard date yet).

Anyway, I'd like to set up a 25% off coupon for any med class we offer for T4R.org members, if there's interest. If that sounds like your jam, PM me.

Our website is https://www.atomiclegion.com if you'd like to see more details.

Again, mods, please don't hesitate to advise if this is inappropriate.

 

[Doc2012]

If I ever come to Texas, I’ll have to link up and attend a course.

Too bad there’s not anything like this on the east coast.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Bonesetter]

If I ever come to Texas, I’ll have to link up and attend a course.

Too bad there’s not anything like this on the east coast.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We're lucky in my neck of the woods to have a pretty amazing community of people who like to be useful... If you're ever down this way, give us a shout.

If I hear of anything in the training network in your general area, I'll definitely pass it along. You might reach out to SOARescue-- I recently did some stuff with them just outside Charlotte, right before the Spec Ops Med conference.

 

[theesotericone]

We're lucky in my neck of the woods to have a pretty amazing community of people who like to be useful... If you're ever down this way, give us a shout.

If I hear of anything in the training network in your general area, I'll definitely pass it along. You might reach out to SOARescue-- I recently did some stuff with them just outside Charlotte, right before the Spec Ops Med conference.

I want to ask a question about your course. I think a little background about myself will help see I have pretty valid credentials to ask this.

I have been a firefighter, EMT. I have a NY State AMGA accredited Climbing Guides license. I have been involved in high angle rescues both as a firefighter and as a climber. I have taught high angle rescue techniques.

I'm all for people being prepared for the worse. I think doing so allows you to operate with less stress when the shit really hits the fan. I'm all for teaching people to make smart informed decisions in critical situations.

Your course seems a little short to prepare folks. A standard WFR(Wilderness First Responder) course is 9-10 days. They run from 600-1000 and are available all over the country. That course I recommend to anyone that spends time pursuing outdoor passions. So, what do you teach people in 6 hours that they will retain and can then be used in critical situations?

Again, I have a lot of respect for this idea I just want to here your thoughts.

 

[Bonesetter]

I want to ask a question about your course. I think a little background about myself will help see I have pretty valid credentials to ask this.

I have been a firefighter, EMT. I have a NY State AMGA accredited Climbing Guides license. I have been involved in high angle rescues both as a firefighter and as a climber. I have taught high angle rescue techniques.

I'm all for people being prepared for the worse. I think doing so allows you to operate with less stress when the shit really hits the fan. I'm all for teaching people to make smart informed decisions in critical situations.

Your course seems a little short to prepare folks. A standard WFR(Wilderness First Responder) course is 9-10 days. They run from 600-1000 and are available all over the country. That course I recommend to anyone that spends time pursuing outdoor passions. So, what do you teach people in 6 hours that they will retain and can then be used in critical situations?

Again, I have a lot of respect for this idea I just want to here your thoughts.

That's a totally valid question, theesotericone. Keep in mind that these courses are designed for either 1:the professional who wants a quick refresher as well as awareness of any new developments in the field (we've had former PJs and similar come through just to keep skills up), or 2: the civilian who has had zero or very little training in these areas.

I think it's unrealistic to expect the average civilian to attend a multi-day (and often thousand-dollar plus) course which is often aimed at credentialing at some level. Take TCCC, for example, of which I am also an instructor. A 16 hour course which delves into ALS medications, cricothyrotomy procedures, and nine-line evacuation orders, among other things, in addition to basic techniques of hemorrhage control: a lot of that information is going to be extraneous to someone who is responding at the layperson level. On the other hand, take Stop the Bleed (of which I am also an instructor and coordinator)-- a 2 hour course in the most basic techniques of tourniquet application and junctional wound packing. While a class like this is valuable toward building community awareness and instilling an initial working knowledge of bleeding control, it fall far short of addressing other types of traumatic injuries, Tx for shock, airway complications, or providing any scenario-based training to build muscle memory and systematic modes of assessment and treatment: all things that I would argue that I can accomplish in a 6 hour class. Note that the classes used to be 8 hours, but people were exhausted by the end, so I removed a few of the less-used skills and shortened it to accomodate attention span. And all of what I'm saying here is only addressing the our trauma-specific course, Trauma 101. That course is then followed by opportunities for the student to come back and participate in scenario training every other month, because we all know that skill decay is a real thing (a recent research paper found that a person could be taught to use a TQ in less than 30 minutes, but without practice would forget TQ application techniques 70% of the time when tested 6 months later).

Longish answer to your question, for which I apologize if unwarranted, but I get geeky about med training and practice. Would it be adviseable for every person to attend a Wilderness Responder course (and I would point out that there exist numerous such courses that are only 2 or 3 days in duration)? Of course it would be, but that's not going to happen for most people. Therefore, it makes sense to me to offer training that is accessible, not unreasonable in terms of commitment, and yet equips community members to be more useful when situations arise.

I could keep going on like this for hours, but that would seem masturbatory on my part, so I'll stop there. I genuinely appreciate you asking the question: if you feel that my answer isn't sufficient, or you'd like to discuss further, please don't hesitate to hit me up.

 

[theesotericone]

That course is then followed by opportunities for the student to come back and participate in scenario training every other month, because we all know that skill decay is a real thing (a recent research paper found that a person could be taught to use a TQ in less than 30 minutes, but without practice would forget TQ application techniques 70% of the time when tested 6 months later).

Having the opportunity to come back for further training and refreshers is a very good thing. As we both know it's one thing to learn something but it's a lot different to apply that skill under pressure of a real life situation. That doesn't even take skill degradation into account. Going through the skills ant the practical scenarios over and over is the only thing that will really prepare you to be efficient under stress.

One thing I've always done, and encourage people I've taught to climb to also do, is go through scenarios in your head. It sounds a little dark and most likely is. Every time I go climbing I am constantly evaluating the situation and identifying worse case scenarios. It could just be my training and my mindset that allows me to do that and still have fun. IDK.

What I do know is I've been involved in more then a few rescues and recoveries. I've seen fist hand the shock most people go into when situations become life threatening. Any type of course or mental preparation could help all of those folks. Most people don't think about that sort of training until it is to late. Many pursue it after a traumatic event and that helps in the future but foresight isn't something people usually have for events like that.

I've been lucky to have been trained. I'm also lucky that I have the ability to perform very well under pressure. I still don't know how much of an individuals ability to perform under life threatening situations is from training and how much is from brain chemistry. I've seen really well trained people fold under pressure and I've also seen untrained people keep it together and be incredibly useful. Either way, training never hurts.

Thanks for taking the time to give me a valid well reasoned answer. It speaks to the character of the trainer and your desire to make people more prepared. I wish you the best with your courses. I hope your students get the training and practical experience they want. If they ever need to use it I'm sure they will thank you. For their sake though, I hope they never have to.

 

[Bonesetter]

Having the opportunity to come back for further training and refreshers is a very good thing. As we both know it's one thing to learn something but it's a lot different to apply that skill under pressure of a real life situation. That doesn't even take skill degradation into account. Going through the skills ant the practical scenarios over and over is the only thing that will really prepare you to be efficient under stress.

One thing I've always done, and encourage people I've taught to climb to also do, is go through scenarios in your head. It sounds a little dark and most likely is. Every time I go climbing I am constantly evaluating the situation and identifying worse case scenarios. It could just be my training and my mindset that allows me to do that and still have fun. IDK.

What I do know is I've been involved in more then a few rescues and recoveries. I've seen fist hand the shock most people go into when situations become life threatening. Any type of course or mental preparation could help all of those folks. Most people don't think about that sort of training until it is to late. Many pursue it after a traumatic event and that helps in the future but foresight isn't something people usually have for events like that.

I've been lucky to have been trained. I'm also lucky that I have the ability to perform very well under pressure. I still don't know how much of an individuals ability to perform under life threatening situations is from training and how much is from brain chemistry. I've seen really well trained people fold under pressure and I've also seen untrained people keep it together and be incredibly useful. Either way, training never hurts.

Thanks for taking the time to give me a valid well reasoned answer. It speaks to the character of the trainer and your desire to make people more prepared. I wish you the best with your courses. I hope your students get the training and practical experience they want. If they ever need to use it I'm sure they will thank you. For their sake though, I hope they never have to.

The mental imaging you're talking about is spot on, man. We start every med class and training session with a discussion about cultivating mindset to manage crisis before an incident ever happens, and playing out scenarios in your head long before you ever have to deal with them. It's the same thing I do for almost every aspect of my profession. There's a bunch of really great info and discussions out there regarding mental imagery as it relates to all types of emergency response, firearms training, hand-to-hand and martial arts, as well as competitive sports.

I agree that even a well-trained individual can come off the rails under stress. The old adage of "you don't rise to the needs of the occasion, you fall to the level of your training" is not a guarantee of performance by any means, only a suggestion that more training is a further means of giving yourself better access to every tool you may have available.

Thanks for your response, and the good wishes; it's a real pleasure to discuss this kind of subject matter with someone who obviously puts deliberate thought into what they do and express. Based on that alone, I would bet that you're good at what you do, and even my limited experience with some of the things you do has made it apparent to me how difficult and stressful that kind of work can be. Best wishes to you, too, and stay safe out there.