title: Training forward surgical teams for deployment: the US Army Trauma Training Center.
abstract: Since the late 1980s, the US Army has been deploying forward surgical teams to the most intense areas of conflict to care for personnel injured in combat. The forward surgical team is a 20-person medical team that is highly mobile, extremely agile, and has relatively little need of outside support to perform its surgical mission. In order to perform this mission, however, team training and trauma training are required. The large majority of these teams do not routinely train together to provide patient care, and that training currently takes place at the US Army Trauma Training Center (ATTC). The training staff of the ATTC is a specially selected 10-person team made up of active duty personnel from the Army Medical Department assigned to the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital Ryder Trauma Center in Miami, Florida. The ATTC team of instructors trains as many as 11 forward surgical teams in 2-week rotations per year so that the teams are ready to perform their mission in a deployed setting. Since the first forward surgical team was trained at the ATTC in January 2002, more than 112 forward surgical teams and other similar-sized Department of Defense forward resuscitative and surgical units have rotated through trauma training at the Ryder Trauma Center in preparation for deployment overseas.
authors.affiliation: COL Linda Valdiri, ANC, USA, is chief nurse and senior clinical instructor at the US Army Trauma Training Center. She has spent more than 20 years in the Army and has deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.SSG Virginia Andrews-Arce, USA, is the noncommissioned officer in charge and the clinical instructor for licensed practical nurses at the US Army Trauma Training Center. She has spent more than 14 years in the Army and has deployed in support of both Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.LTC Jason M. Seery, MD, is the director of the US Army Trauma Training Center. He is a general surgeon and has extensive operational and deployment experience, most recently as commander of the 541st Forward Surgical Team, Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. lvaldiri13@outlook.com.
authors.forename: Linda A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Valdiri
authors.affiliation: COL Linda Valdiri, ANC, USA, is chief nurse and senior clinical instructor at the US Army Trauma Training Center. She has spent more than 20 years in the Army and has deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.SSG Virginia Andrews-Arce, USA, is the noncommissioned officer in charge and the clinical instructor for licensed practical nurses at the US Army Trauma Training Center. She has spent more than 14 years in the Army and has deployed in support of both Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.LTC Jason M. Seery, MD, is the director of the US Army Trauma Training Center. He is a general surgeon and has extensive operational and deployment experience, most recently as commander of the 541st Forward Surgical Team, Ft. Bragg, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Virginia E
authors.initials: VE
authors.lastname: Andrews-Arce
authors.affiliation: COL Linda Valdiri, ANC, USA, is chief nurse and senior clinical instructor at the US Army Trauma Training Center. She has spent more than 20 years in the Army and has deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.SSG Virginia Andrews-Arce, USA, is the noncommissioned officer in charge and the clinical instructor for licensed practical nurses at the US Army Trauma Training Center. She has spent more than 14 years in the Army and has deployed in support of both Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.LTC Jason M. Seery, MD, is the director of the US Army Trauma Training Center. He is a general surgeon and has extensive operational and deployment experience, most recently as commander of the 541st Forward Surgical Team, Ft. Bragg, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Jason M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Seery
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005260:Female; D005431:Florida; D006772:Hospitals, Military / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008887:Military Medicine / Q000193:education*; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000193:education*; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014193:Trauma Centers / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014857:Warfare; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000601:surgery*