Training Tactical Combat Casualty Care with an Integrated Training Approach.

Tactical medical situations require squads to coordinate achieving tactical mission objectives while providing competent medical treatment. A tactical situation may require foregoing all but the most essential point-of-wounding care until tactical dangers are suppressed effective shooting stops and security allows for more definitive treatment. Core knowledge and skills, within the content areas of advanced situational awareness, resilience, tactical combat casualty care, and team performance can help teams coordinate medical and tactical team decisions and tasks. The objective of the Squad Overmatch Tactical Combat Casualty Care SOvM TC3 project was to improve individual and team performance within the context of tactical medical care. To do this, the team utilized the Team Dimensional Training TDT model to integrate and train the above skills through guided team self-correction [3]. The empirically derived expert model of teamwork TDT has been found to be effective in a variety of team settings. Smith-Jentsch, Cannon-Bowers, Tannenbaum, and Salas 2008 demonstrated that teams who participated in facilitator-led guided self-correction developed more accurate mental models of teamwork, demonstrated superior teamwork processes, and achieved more effective performance outcomes than did those briefed and debriefed using a traditional method. This effort extended the TDT model to the core skills within an integrated training curriculum for tactical medical skills. This paper discusses team members' reported efficacy of the TDT approach in fostering individual and team process skills.