The Source for Navy News
Navy Medicine Shares Skills With Bremerton Community
Story Number: NNS020424-04
Release Date: 4/24/2002 11:01:00 AM
By Judith Robertson, Naval Hospital Bremerton Public Affairs
BREMERTON, Wash. (NNS) -- Civilian and military public health providers, policemen, firemen, American Red Cross workers, and first responders gathered in Kitsap County, Wash. recently to learn about the medical management of chemical, biological, radiological (CBR) and environmental casualties.
Naval Hospital Bremerton health surveillance group hosted a five-person team from the Navy Environmental and Preventive Medicine Unit 5 (NEPMU 5) from San Diego, which lead a three-day course for healthcare providers and a one-day course for first responders. The team focused on ways to identify, decipher and treat casualties resulting from exposure to unknown, but potentially lethal, substances.
Naval Hospital Bremerton’s Commanding Officer CAPT Christine Hunter, MC, said the purpose of the training was to share information and resources so that area healthcare professionals and responders would be ready should an emergency occur. She said it reflects Navy Medicine’s motto change from "standing by, ready to assist" to the more proactive "steaming to assist."
According to NEPMU 5’s Commanding Officer, CAPT Josh Senter, MSC, before Sept. 11, he and his team had a hard time getting an audience for their special training. Now, they get large, interested groups where ever they go - more than 160 healthcare professionals and responders turned out for the Bremerton training.
"It’s a matter of training people to think about things that they have already been trained to do,” said Senter. “We're here to tell them, 'apply your skills and knowledge you already have to another situation.'"
One community health provider found the training on detoxification especially helpful since she often finds herself dealing with methamphetamine abusers.
"We have a high concentration of meth users," said Deb Randall-Penney, who works at a community drug 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."
The NEPMU 5 provides training to Navy and other military members from the Mississippi River to the West Coast.
To find out more about NEMPU 5, go to http://www.spawar.navy.mil/usn/nepmu5/.
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