Medics showcase patient care concepts to Afghan airmen

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Melissa B. White
  • 451st Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan (AFNS) --  Air Force medics introduced some of their patient care concepts to Afghan airmen Sept. 8 here.

For the first time, 451st Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron Contingency Aeromedical Staging Facility Airmen oriented four Afghan airmen to methods used to secure patients and load and move litters.

"I like knowing that we're able to pass something on to the Afghans," said Tech. Sgt. Jeff Neilsen, a 451st EAES CASF medical technician. "Ultimately, this affects them, so the goal is for them to be able to move their patients in a more orderly fashion to ensure patient safety."

The orientation is part of an eight-week course for the Afghan air force flight medics. The course is to familiarize them with the full spectrum of aeromedical evacuation, with this class focusing on CASF procedures. CASF members care for and deliver patients from the Kandahar Role 3 Hospital to aircraft for aeromedical evacuation.

"This will help them tremendously," said Col. Bruce Nelson, a 738th Air Expeditionary Advisory Group flight surgeon medical advisor. "They came here not having much knowledge about the CASF, but they have worked with litters before; we're just trying to get them to do it in a more orderly fashion and to reinforce and encourage them."

The Kandahar Air Wing currently only has four flight medics and three other medical professionals stationed at Kandahar Airfield, but officials plan to expand to 20 members in the future.

"Eventually, we want them to set up their own CASF so they can move patients, and we want them to be able to do it efficiently," Colonel Nelson said.

In addition to showing Afghans how to move patients, the 451st EAES CASF members also taught the same concepts to other servicemembers, but for a different reason.

"When we're short-staffed, sometimes we can really use the help with moving patients," said Senior Airman Nikkos Hamlett, a 451st EAES CASF pharmacy technician. "Sometimes, when we see we have a huge load coming in, we give our volunteers a call for help, or sometimes they call us on their day off to see if we have anything coming in where we'll need the help."

These medics trained their second group of volunteer servicemembers here Sept. 6, to bring the total for their team of volunteers to 25 people.

It is important for these CASF Airmen to operate smoothly and quickly as they support aeromedical evacuation missions six days a week with at least one mission a day. On these missions, the CASF Airmen can send out anywhere from two to 20 patients, ranging in conditions from walking-wounded to critical-care patients.

"It's a big deal to make (patient movement) as quick as possible, because the quicker we transfer patients, the less likely we are to delay them in getting the care they need," Sergeant Neilsen said.

Sergeant Nielsen and Airman Hamlett, the spearheaders of the training and orientation for the Afghans, said they enjoy being able to show others how to move patients and how to do it properly.

"It's really cool getting to do this because I don't get to do much of this training at home because I work in a pharmacy," said Airman Hamlett, who is deployed from the 6th Medical Support Squadron, MacDill AFB, Fla. "It's something different for me to do, and I'm glad there are people who want to learn."