TacMed Academy, LLC

13/04/2024

Rifle qual on the new LMT Defense with the Eotech optic, magnifier and suppressor. She shot beautifully.

Reminder that qualifications are simply tests. They should not be considered training!

Enjoyed the random 30 mph winds and downpour today 🤙🏽 who said paper targets aren’t moving targets?

09/03/2024

Poor chest compressions are better than no chest compressions!

With being said everyone should strive to attend a reputable CPR/AED class.

Here’s a quick run down as a refresher:

1. Scene safety, initial patient assessment, PPE.

2. Check for life threatening bleeding.

3. Check for responsiveness, breathing, pulse.

4. Call 911 (or have someone else do it). Remember group mentality. People will just stand around not knowing what to do. Step and demand someone specifically to call 911.

5. Lay patient supine (face up) on a flat hard surface.

6. Give 30 compressions. 2 hands with fingers interlocked, centered on chest, shoulders over Chest with arms locked. Depth of at least 2 inches (adult). Infants and children is a depth of about 1.5 inches. Compression rate is about 100-120 compressions per minute. Allow chest to return to normal position after each compression.

7. Give 2 rescue breaths if you are comfortable doing that but studies show that hands only cpr can be just as effective in the early stages of cardiac arrest.

Compressions are the most important!

If you are doing rescue breaths use the head tilt chin lift technique, pinch the nose close, seal off the mouth, then deliver a normal breath and ensure the chest is rising.

8. Use an AED as soon as one is available.

9. Continue 30 and 2 or hands only cpr until help arrives.

12/01/2024

Improvised Chest Seals 👇

Do you always have the correct gear with you 100% of the time? In a perfect world you would but let’s be realistic. Even highly qualified first responders will leave their house to try to live a normal life without all their work items.

Scenario: you just witnessed someone experience a traumatic thoracic injury and do not have a chest seal to cover the sucking chest wound. What can you do? Grab any piece of impermeable plastic and tape it over the hole in the chest and back. You could use a sandwich bag, potato chip bag, plastic wrapper, Saran Wrap etc.

Location: We Seal “the box.” Any traumatic penetrating injury within the navel region (belly button) to collar bone gets a chest seal.

Evidence: There is still some debate in the medical communtiy about whether to tape the improvised chest seal on 3 or 4 sides. If you are going to tape the seal on 3 sides remember to leave the side open that is towards the ground when you roll the patient into the recovery position. This will allow the wound to drain naturally upon expiration and will seal up upon inspiration.

Some new research/guidelines indicates taping on all 4 sides is better because it creates a better seal which is the primary goal. Taping an improvised seal on 3 sides is good in theory but there isn’t a lot of real-world evidence to suggest its effectiveness at properly draining.

Whichever method you choose, practice! No one wants the first time they perform a life saving action to be the real event.

01/01/2024

New years Medical Monday! 🎊

We wanted to wish you all a Happy New Years and start the year off right with a Medical Monday post about what happens to the human body’s blood vessels as it deals with stress and trauma.

Cheers to a great year full of new connections, lessons, and top quality education!

30/12/2023

While not a new concept, we can assure you that operating in n dual roles as LE/EMS is not an easy task. This can really only be successfully implemented in rural areas with a low EMS call volume and even then it is still not an ideal situation.

We are at an odd time where we are still trying to figure out the best way to handle EMS calls proficiency while maintaining financial concerns and a nationwide staffing crisis.

Should rural EMS be outsourced to other public safety departments? The idea of EMS operating under another department is nothing new.

27/12/2023

Whose responsibility is it to ensure first responders are proficient in their duties? 👇

In my humble opinion, I believe both the department/agency and the first responder are responsible for the development of their skills, mental and physical fitness.

Agencies need to be providing their personnel with opportunity to grow. This includes:

1️⃣ Formal/informal Field trainings
2️⃣ Formal training outside of the agency
3️⃣ Time allotted on the job to work out, shoot at the range, train on each other or medical dummy’s etc.
4️⃣ Debriefing after traumatic incidents/ Mental health breaks

First responders need to be motivated to improve their own skills and abilities outside of mandated trainings. This includes:

1️⃣ Working out on their own time
2️⃣ Spending time at the range if your job requires you to carry a firearm.
3️⃣ Developing a new skill (new language, computer based skill, social media skill etc)
4️⃣ Developing their own coping mechanisms to ensure they stay mentally fit.

As an FTO, I could never wrap my head around the idea of giving up on someone unless they have given up on themselves and the job completely. Training may not fix every issue but it can fix many.

There’s no “one size fits all” strategy but If both the agency and the first responder are investing in each other, the outcome should be positive.

Let us know your opinion ⬇️

25/12/2023

We want to send our warm wishes for a happy and healthy holiday season to everyone that has joined us on our journey.

To all the fire, EMS, police, and military who are working today, we wish you a safe, happy and hopefully uneventful holiday.

Merry Christmas! 🎄🎁

-TACMED ACADEMY

19/12/2023

Tactical Mindset: Condition yellow v condition red 👇

First responders and military personnel need to operate in “condition yellow” most of the time and occasionally operate in “condition red.”

🟡“Condition Yellow” is when the person is at that perfect balance of a zen like state while maintaining situational awareness and alertness. First responders should strive to live in condition yellow.

🔴 “Condition Red” is the fight or flight response triggered by your sympathetic nervous system. It is an automatic physiological response to a perceived threat.

🧠Soldiers in combat will operate in condition red much longer than civilian first responders. The longer your mind stays in condition red, the higher likely for psychological injury, but in times of combat, is necessary to ensure your survival.

🧠A Swat team point man penetrating the threshold to confront a hostage situation may need to operate in the red to have his cognitive reaction time, visual reaction time, and complex motor skills all operating at peak performance.

🧠Another example would be an EMT dealing with a combative patient.

🧠Yes, you’d lose your fine motor skills, and fall victim to “tunnel vision” but your in a brief state of “fight” which helps keep you safe. If trained, we can reduce the time from visualizing the threat, processing the threat, and reacting to the threat, leading to faster decision making.

🧠Operating in the red is good for brief threatening encounters but we need to switch back to condition yellow as soon as appropriate to ensure we stay physiologically regulated (homeostasis).

🧠This is all about calculated risks and finding that optimal level of physiological arousal for a given task.