Cross-training between US Army Soldiers, Medical Students

With the ambulance team, medical students work on stabilizing the patient while transporting him to the emergency room during a gunshot-wound-simulation training at the Poznań University of Medical Sciences, Poland, Jan. 4. The ambulance team is responsible for diagnosing, monitoring the patient’s condition, dressing wounds and injuries while coordinating with the emergency room.

POZNAN, Poland — U.S. Army Soldiers and medical students from the Poznan University of Medical Sciences participate in a cross-training simulation event in Poland.

The purpose of the simulation was to provide the most realistic and practical training for acute trauma and medical scenarios.

“We don’t get a lot of opportunities to do real-life training, especially with a wide variety of perspectives that these students have,” said U.S. Army Cpt. Ryan Hunton, the Division Surgeon of the 1st Infantry Division Forward. “This is a great training center that allows us to see what it is like to work in trauma.”

The event consisted of a scenario of a patient who had multiple gunshot wounds. Divided into three teams, the students had to assess the patient in the field, put him into the ambulance, and transfer him to the emergency room team. At the end of the simulation, the group conducted a debriefing and reviewed the recordings of the different scenarios to exchange feedback and recommendations.

The exercise allowed the Soldiers and the medical students to share knowledge about tourniquets and other trauma-related scenarios, said Hunton. “In the future, we will potentially have other opportunities to build our collaboration with the University.”