curious george said:
I've got two questions:
After consolidation, how many months per year do you go back to acute care setting to maintain those skills?
Is there a Trauma Care Course and Burn Course somewhere along the way during the nursing training/career? Or should it be something I do on my own time?
Every Nursing Officer is required to pass the Emergency Nursing Association (ENA) Trauma Nursing Core Course (TNCC) while on the Basic Nursing Officer Course as a Lieutenant. You will then be required to re-certify in TNCC as it expires for the rest of you career as a Nursing Officer unless you become a Mental Health Nursing Officer. There are also opportunities to become an TNCC Instructor and TNCC Course Director as you progress in rank and experience, have the aptitude, and there are positions / requirement. You will also see nursing officers do the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) course as an auditor and/or the ENA Emergency Nursing Pediatrics Course. I have also seen a few nursing offers now take the ENA Course in Advanced Trauma Nursing II (CATN-II) course. Finally, some Nursing Officers will take the International Basic Trauma Life Support Course (IBLS) , or the Prehospital Trauma Life Support Course (PHTLS). Both of these courses are taught on the Combat Casualty Care Course, down in Texas, which we send a few nursing officers on each year.
There is some basic burn training during the Basic Nursing Officer Course. I have seen Nursing Officers do the American Burn Association, Advanced Burn Life Support Course. The problem is that you do not see it run in Canada very often and we have had to wait for someone to teach it here, or send them down to the US. I have also seen a number of nurses recently do a Maintenance of Clinical Skills Program (MSCP) rotation at the Sunnybrook Burn Centre (The Ross Tilley Burn Centre). This has been a tremendous opportunity, and everyone that I have spoken with who has done it has said great things about this MCSP rotation.
The MSCP is how you maintain your clinical skills. To be honest it is not the best functioning of programs. It prescribes a certain number of hours per year that you are "required" to be back in hospital maintaining your clinical skill set. It is under review for content. Most General Duty Nursing Officer seem to be getting four to five weeks a year in an area where it can do the most good for them, based on identified requirement. This is often in Emergency or on a Med/Surg Ward. Some are getting more (ones in field units), some are getting less (ones in busy base medical clinics) . The problem is that they have to leave their full-time job on base (seeing patients in a base medical clinic, teaching at the school, managing, etc) and go an MSCP which an prove to be problematic, given workload, as there is nobody left behind then to do the required tasks.
With Afghanistan, we have always had Nursing Officers in the pre-deployment / deployment cycle and hence why *I think* the MSCP has fallen off the rails somewhat. The small buffer we had built into the system for MSCP, was consumed by this deployment. I suspect it will get better in the future, assuming an decrease in tempo and there is some re-organization afoot to have more Nursing Officers working in hospital full time / close to full time in a variety of rotations for a three year posting ("high readiness" nursing officers).
I hope that helps. If you have any other questions please ask.
Do not listen to any non-hacker who can not make it past basic training. They may have been a poor recruiting selection, or just bitter from bad luck.
MC
My thoughts to those 7 medics who saved others at the cost of their own health and life.
