The US Air Force is expanding its newly-developed Medic-X initiative to train medical personnel for dynamic future battlefields where resources are limited.
Medic-X requires air force medics and personnel not involved in patient care, such as lab technicians and office staff, to complete 52 life-sustaining proficiencies.
The skill set consists of daily healthcare operations, including medication procedures, pain level assessment, vital monitoring, respiratory care, and critical emergency response.
“These 52 skills are not normally within a majority of medical group training,” US Air Force Medical Service’s Medic-X Lead Lt. Col. Samantha Kelpis stated.
“An administrator doesn’t normally do any hands-on patient care. MEDIC-X trains them on skills they will need in a challenging deployed environment where the priority is not going to be completing administrative tasks, it is going to be saving lives.”
“When they are deployed and resources are limited, they need to know how to perform some level of patient care.”
Training for All
Airmen can pass the Medic-X program through annual training or demonstrate competency in a formal evaluation.
Personnel who have been performing patient care daily can also be granted credit for most of the skills.
“Even though the MEDIC-X training is primarily focused on those individuals who do not engage in direct patient care on a regular basis, there could be skills a traditional clinician may need a refresher on.”
“Those clinical-focused individuals may not have the working knowledge of a ventilator or offloading a patient from a fixed wing aircraft depending on their prior work or deployment experience.”
“With that said, those individuals would need to go through the training of those skills they are unfamiliar with.”
Demand for ‘Multi-Capable Airmen’
The Medic-X program builds on operational doctrine (AFDN 1-21), which addresses the demand for multi-capable airmen with expertise beyond their title duties.
“Future conflict will never look like wars of the past, and that is why we have to get after building multi-capable, strategically minded Airmen today, so they can compete, deter, and win tomorrow,” US Air Force Chief Master Sergeant JoAnne Bass explained.
“AFDN 1-21 presents, in doctrine, expeditionary and multi-capable Airmen capable of accomplishing tasks outside of their core Air Force specialty to provide combat support and combat service support to [Agile Combat Employment] force elements.”
