Transport Nurse Advanced Truma Course

My upcoming deployment to Afghanistan will have me spending a lot of my time working with a MEDEVAC company as I am being deployed as an ECCN or an Enroute Critical Care Nurse. So before actually reporting in mid-June I am wanting to gain as much training as I can to better prepare me to care for the Wounded Warriors that will be in the Blackhawk with me.

One of the courses I had been thinking about taking for a year or so now was the Transport Nurse Advanced Trauma Course (TNATC). I wan't sure if it would relate to combat flight nursing but I knew it couldn't hurt. I took some vacation time and headed off to Grand Junction, Colorado for a three-day class. With all the military medicine and combat medicine training I have already received this course wasn't as much a I had hoped but if it helps make a difference with just one patient then it is all worth it.

Some of the skill sets we practiced included multiple methods of intubation to include surgical cricothyrotomy, central line placement, rapid intraosseous line placement, pericardiocentesis, chest tube insertion. Most of these skills I am not authorized to perform stateside, but am intrigued as to what I will be allowed to do while deployed...

The following video should only be watched if you have a strong stomach. We were practicing our surgical airways and then trying to ventilate the sheep's lungs.