Combat medic
The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. (January 2014) |
A combat medic is responsible for providing emergency medical treatment at a point of wounding in a combat or training environment, as well as primary care and health protection and evacuation from a point of injury or illness. Additionally, medics may also be responsible for the creation, oversight, and execution of long-term patient care plans in consultation with or in the absence of a readily available doctor or advanced practice provider. Combat medics may be used in hospitals and clinics, where they have the opportunity to work in additional roles, such as operating medical and laboratory equipment and performing and assisting with procedures.
Canada
Training
All Regular Force Medical Technicians begin training with the Canadian Forces Leadership and Recruit School in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec.[1] Then they begin Occupational training at The Canadian Forces Health Services Training Center in Borden, Ontario, where they are taught how to maintain medical supplies and equipment, screen patients, implement patient care plans, treat medical conditions, administer diagnostic procedures, medications, and continuous infusions. They also learn how to manage airways and assist with minor surgical procedures setting up deployed medical facilities and treating casualties in an operational and CBRNE environment over the course of 47-48 weeks. They also earn the Primary Care Paramedic Level 1 certification. Advanced training can include, Preventive Medicine, Biomedical electronics, and Aviation Physiology, among others.
Assignments
Medical Technicians may be posted to any Canadian ship, or base as part of the base emergency response or as part of a clinic or hospital. They can also be deployed as the medical detachment of an infantry platoon, as part of a
United States
Training and certifications
All military medical training in the United States takes place at Joint Base San Antonio, Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Here, among other medical jobs, Army Combat Medics, Air Force Medical Technicians, and Navy Hospital Corpsman complete their respective medical training programs. While there are similarities in the training and skills, each branch also incorporates training specific to their services’ needs and mission.
Although Combat Medics are certified at the Emergency Medical Technician level upon graduation, their scope of practice often parallels and sometimes surpasses that of a paramedic. Their scope is expanded upon by the medical provider(s) assigned to the unit, who oversees the protocols and training of assigned medical personnel. Army medics follow a career progression sequence, wherein each rank above Specialist/Corporal (E4) comes with additional required knowledge, skills, and competencies.
Medics remain very versatile and may even diagnose illnesses and perform procedures usually performed by
Although most of the training translates into civilian certifications/licenses, medics often train and practice on skills and with medications outside of their civilian counterparts' scope of practice. Many programs are dedicated to and who provide preference for military medics transitioning into Paramedic, Registered Nurse (RN), and Physician Assistant (PA) educations.
Assignments
Hospitals and clinics
Medics may also be assigned to combat support hospital units, forward surgical teams, and military treatment facilities and clinics where they can fulfill almost any role, from administrative duties to laboratory and medical equipment operations.
Field units
When assigned to non-medical field units such as
Ambulance/Evac medics function just like a civilian ambulance would. They are responsible for responding to and transporting patients from a point of injury to, as well as between medical care facilities.
The
Line medics are the most independent of the 3. Although they belong to Headquarters, they are attached to other platoons within a company and oversee the medical care of the soldiers assigned to them which can be anywhere from 30 to 60 Soldiers. They become a part of the group they are assigned to and with the exception of a few tasks, they do everything that their assigned soldiers do from training to missions. They are the ones who would be the first to treat an injured person and direct their immediate medical care, and are often the first to recognize when something is wrong with one of their soldiers because they spend so much time with them. They may also be the subject matter expert in advising leaders of medical planning for missions. Their co-location with the troops they are assigned allows them to easily monitor ongoing health.
Being a line medic requires them to carry whatever a regular soldier carries, in addition to an aid bag and other medical supplies. These medics must be very physically fit, and able to function well in highly stressful tactical situations. They are expected to be very independent and function on their own as extensions of the provider. They make field diagnosis and manage the conditions appropriately, deferring to the provider when necessary.
In the U.S. armed forces, service members in line units often refer to their assigned combat medic or hospital corpsman as "Doc."
Geneva Convention protection
In 1864, sixteen European states adopted the first-ever Geneva Convention to save lives and alleviate the suffering of wounded and sick persons in the battlefield, as well as to protect trained medical personnel as non-combatants, in the act of rendering aid.
Chapter IV, Article 25 of the Geneva Convention states that: "Members of the
According to the Geneva Convention, knowingly firing at a medic wearing clear insignia is a war crime.[4]
In modern times, most combat medics carry a personal weapon, to be used to protect themselves and the wounded or sick in their care.[5] By convention this is limited to small arms (including rifles). During World War II, for example, Allied medics serving the European and Mediterranean areas usually carried the M1911A1 pistol while those serving the Pacific theater carried pistols or M1 carbines.[6] The German medics (Sanitätssoldaten) in medical units were issued with standard Kar98K, while the infantry level stretcher-bearers (Krankenträgern) and medical NCOs (Sanitätsunteroffiziere) were issued Luger or Walther pistols. When and if they use their arms offensively, they then sacrifice their protection under the Geneva Conventions.[7] In today's combat environment, many times non-conventional forces do not follow the Geneva Conventions, and actually deliberately target medical personnel identified by their equipment or insignia. Consequently, based on the tactical environment medics in some armies carry an M4 in addition to their pistol.
History
The Roman Army used combat medics which were referred to as Capsarii after the box (capsa) of bandages which they carried. Forts could also have hospitals integrated into their designs.[8]
Surgeon
During the American Civil War, musicians had the double duty of acting as stretcher-bearers to move the wounded to field hospitals and assisting surgeons operating on patients. However, the results of using musicians as medical assistants were uneven, and while some became adept in the role others were more hindrance than help.[9] Surgeon (Major) Jonathan Letterman, Medical Director of the Army of the Potomac, realized a need for an integrated medical treatment and evacuation system, equipped with dedicated vehicles, organizations, facilities, and personnel. The Letterman plan for a dedicated ambulance corps was first implemented in September 1862 at the Battle of Antietam, Maryland, where it proved its worth. Soon the U.S. Ambulance Corps became an integral part of the Union Army. The Confederate States Army also implemented an ambulance corps, but it was plagued with shortages of men and materiel, making its job more difficult.[10]
The United States Army's need for medical and scientific specialty officers to support combat operations resulted in the creation of two temporary components: the U.S. Army Ambulance Service, established on June 23, 1917, and the Sanitary Corps, established on June 30, 1917. Officers of the Sanitary Corps served in medical logistics, hospital administration, patient administration, resource management, x-ray, laboratory engineering, physical reconstruction, gas defense, and venereal disease control. They were dedicated members of the medical team that enabled American generals to concentrate on enemy threats rather than epidemic threats. On August 4, 1947, Congress created the Navy Medical Service Corps.[11]
In the United States, a report entitled "
Red Cross, Red Crescent, and Red Star of David
The International Committee of the Red Cross, a private humanitarian institution based in Switzerland, provided the first official symbol for medical personnel. The first Geneva Convention, originally called for "Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field", officially adopted the red cross on a field of white as the identifying emblem. This symbol was meant to signify to enemy combatants that the medic qualifies as a non-combatant, at least while providing medical care.[12] Islamic countries use a Red Crescent instead, originating from the Russo-Turkish War, when the Ottoman Empire declared that it would use a red crescent instead of a red cross as its emblem, although it agreed to respect the red cross used by the opposing Russian Empire.
Although these symbols were officially sponsored by the
Modern day
The examples and perspective in this section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. (September 2015) |
Medical personnel from most Western nations carry weapons for protection of themselves and their patients but remain designated non-combatants, wearing the red cross, crescent or crystal. In the United States Armed Forces, MEDEVAC vehicles display a large Red Cross on a white background. However, ground forces do not display this due to increased targeting of medical personnel by insurgents.[13]
Traditionally, most United States medical personnel also wore a distinguishing red cross, to denote their protection as non-combatants under the Geneva Convention. This practice continued into
The modern-day interpretation of the
In the U.S. Navy, enlisted medical personnel are known as
As a result of the 2005
See also
- 68W – Healthcare Specialist (Combat Medic, U.S. Army) (Field Medic, U.S. Army).
- Ambulance – Military use
- Battlefield medicine
- Brain Trauma Foundation
- Combat Medical Technician– British Army Equivalent
- Combat support hospital
- Flight medic
- Medical assistant
- Medical evacuation
- Military medicine
- Polytrauma
- Royal Army Medical Corps
- Stretcher bearer
- United States Air Force Pararescue
- United States Navy Hospital Corpsman(U.S. Navy and Marine Corps)
- United States Navy Amphibious Reconnaissance Corpsman(U.S. Navy)
References
Citations
- ^ "Medical Technician | Canadian Armed Forces".
- ^ "Medical Technician | Canadian Armed Forces".
- ^ "Who, What, Why: Does shooting goats save soldiers' lives?". BBC News. 2013-03-08. Retrieved 2022-04-04.
- ^ "International Humanitarian Law - First 1949 Geneva Convention". Icrc.org. 1949-08-12. Archived from the original on 2011-11-12. Retrieved 2010-12-13.
- ^ "International Humanitarian Law - First 1949 Geneva Convention". Icrc.org. 1949-08-12. Archived from the original on 2011-11-12. Retrieved 2010-12-13.
- ISBN 9781472814241.
- ^ "International Humanitarian Law - First 1949 Geneva Convention". Icrc.org. 1949-08-12. Archived from the original on 2011-08-16. Retrieved 2010-12-13.
- ISBN 9780195328783.
- ^ Schroeder-Lein, G. R. (2008). The Encyclopedia of Civil War Medicine. United States: M. E. Sharpe Incorporated. p. 225-226
- ^ Schroeder-Lein, G. R. (2008), p. 14-15
- ^ "The World War II Combat Medic". Archived from the original on September 18, 2008. Retrieved October 20, 2008.
- ^ "International Humanitarian Law—First 1949 Geneva Convention". International Committee of the Red Cross. 1949-08-12. Archived from the original on 2011-09-03. Retrieved 2010-12-13.
- ^ "Customary IHL - Practice Relating to Rule 25. Medical Personnel". ihl-databases.icrc.org. Archived from the original on 18 October 2016. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
- ^ Middleton, Thomas A. (2010). Saber's Edge: A Combat Medic in Ramadi, Iraq, p. 7. UPNE.
- ISBN 9781584657477.
- ^ Middleton, p. 8.
- ^ Steve Elliott. "All military medical training roads now start at METC". Aetc.af.mil. Archived from the original on 2013-11-03. Retrieved 2013-02-08.
- ^ "BRAC 2005 recommendations expand Fort Sam Houston to become DoD's premier medical training base and the home of Army installation management, and management of family support activities and community program" (PDF). aetc.af.mil. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 January 2014. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
Sources
- STP 8-91W15-SM-TG SOLDIER'S MANUAL AND TRAINER'S GUIDE, MOS 91W, HEALTH CARE SPECIALIST, SKILL LEVELS 1/2/3/4/5
Further reading
- Cowdrey, Albert E. United States Army in the Korean War: The Medics War (1987), full-scale scholarly official history; online free, covers 1950-53
External links
- Official U.S. Army Home of the 68W - Health Care Specialist
- Corpsman.com – a website run by Docs for Docs of all US military services
- 90th Infantry Division / 315th Medical Battalion webpage (90th Infantry Division Preservation Group website) – has links to other pages showing equipment of US, German and Japanese medics
- WW2 US Medical Research Centre - provides vast amounts of data relating to WW2 US Army Medics
- National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians
- National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians
- NHTSA Emergency Medical Services official website (U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)
- The short film Big Picture: Blood and Bullets is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive.