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Navy Medicine Shares Knowledge with Community
Story Number: NNS020422-04
Release Date: 4/22/2002 9:56:00 AM
By Judith A. Robertson, Naval Hospital Bremerton
BREMERTON, Wash. (NNS) -- Ready to link reality to "what if" scenarios, 162 public health providers, police, fire, American Red Cross workers, and first responders from both the civilian and military sectors gathered at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds for the Medical Management of Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Environmental Casualties course April 9-11.
Hosted by the Naval Hospital Bremerton Health Surveillance Group, a five-person team from the Navy Environmental and Preventive Medicine Unit (NEPMU) 5 from San Diego produced a three-day course for healthcare providers and a one-day course for first responders. The NEPMU 5 team falls under the umbrella of the Navy Environmental Health Command in Norfolk, Va.
In opening remarks, Naval Hospital's commanding officer, Capt. Christine Hunter, Medical Corps, said the objective for the courses was to share information and resources.
After 9-11 the Surgeon General of the Navy, Vice Adm. Mike Cowan, changed the motto of Navy Medicine from "Standing By, Ready to Assist," to "Steaming to Assist."
"He challenged us to deploy our skills into the community, " Hunter said.
The goal for the NEPMU 5 team was to assist community service employees to identify, decipher and treat casualties resulting from exposure to unknown, but potentially lethal substances.
"We hope when you leave with the information you receive here you will never have to use it," said Capt. Josh Senter, Medical Service Corps, the industrial health officer.
"But that is where reality comes in." Senter said that before the nation was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001, he and his team had a difficult time getting an audience. Now the unit, whose area of responsibility is from the Mississippi River to the West Coast, sees a large audience when they take their show on the road, but this is the first time the audience consisted of military and civilians together. "This is a very good model for other Navy regions," he said.
This type of training is very important said Senter, "because a lot of medical personnel do not realize the severity of some of these agents…what happens when a person is exposed to nerve agents or vesicants (blistering agent such as mustard gas) or biological agents. You treat them as a public health emergency. A chemical agent is like a hazmat event. There's a lot of mystery surrounding these issues that we try to dispel. It is a matter of training people to think about things that they have already been trained to do. We're here to tell them, 'apply your skills and knowledge you already have to another situation.'"
The agenda covered such diverse subjects as "Biological Toxins," "Investigating a Public Health Emergency," "Treatment of Radiological Casualties" and the "Triage and Treatment of Casualties."
For Deanna Johnson, RN, infection control nurse at Harrison Hospital, (local civilian hospital), it was the segment on anthrax that was so compelling.
"It's because of the effect it would have on our community," Johnson said. "The management of these casualties and the effects it would have on the staff for secondary exposure, the considerations of the nursing response and how to protect the staff -- It is almost overwhelming to consider how to manage these things if it comes to your front door. This course is absolutely valuable."
Another community health provider found the class on decontamination, especially helpful since she often finds herself dealing with methamphetamine abusers.
"We have a high concentration of Meth [methamphetamine] users," said Deb Randall-Penney, LPN at the Kitsap Recovery Center. "About 50 percent of individuals coming in for drug or alcohol treatment fall into this category. This course was very valuable for people who experience everyday contact of chemical by-products …waste."
For more information on NEPMU 5 go to http://www.spawar.navy.mil/usn/nepmu5/html/history.html.
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