Page 25 - QARANC Vol 14 No 13 2016

THE GAZETTE QARANC 23
Exercise Cold Warrior 2016
So here we all are; for most, our first ever Department of Healthcare Education exercise and as usual when you arrive you’re tired and just want to sleep. However, there is always a late night or early morning brief.
The aim of this exercise was to introduce and refresh our individual and collective basic military medical skills and develop our leadership skills in the delivery of deployed healthcare. The main focus was on those of us who have not yet deployed and have limited experience of working within the deployed medical environment.
Day one was a series of round robins and we were split into 6 sections. This had the aim of winning best section, adding some competitiveness into the students. We started off in the medical treatment facility where we had to work as a team in the ED bay. Throughout the morning more casualties were coming in with all kinds of ailments testing out medical abilities as well as the leadership qualities of the students who stepped forward to be team leaders. The types of injuries seen were lacerations, eye injuries, heat and cold injuries, a typical case of diarrhoea and vomiting and a traumatic amputation.
It was then time to move to the next station which involved military skills. Once the supporting infantry had stopped laughing at a bunch of nurses in the field trying to navigate, we started some command tasks. These demonstrated how well we could work in sections at getting a task done, but also showed some brilliant leadership skills and gave us a chance to take
control.
So onto the dreaded night
navigation. We were given a map and compass and told there were a series of checkpoints to navigate to where we had to collect a designated picture. But it wasn’t all that simple; there were time frames to get to each checkpoint and because the weather had been so kind to us by raining constantly the terrain turned into what I can only describe as a swamp. Conveniently, as we were navigating, we stumbled across a road traffic collision (don’t worry it was all staged and no one was hurt). The aim was to control the scene, triage the casualties and send relevant information over the radio for further assistance and evacuation of casualties, all the while remembering not to unsling your rifle as the directing staff were on the pinch.
Wow day two! Thank the heavens we were going home today, but not before another series of round robins and a church service of course. First off we were back with the infantry and their terrible banter. They had laid out items in a wooded area that you would expect to take on exercise. The aim of this is to make us aware of ground signs and to always be on the lookout for anything abnormal. We found things like a head torch, water bottle, and a gas canister etc. Next up a race, who can strip and assemble a rifle the quickest! Now for a lot of students the struggle was even remembering how to put a sling on let alone taking the rifle apart, but we all did it - challenge complete and onto the next station. Here we had a small child (dummy) in cardiac arrest. The challenge you ask? Keep him alive! So whilst a few were working on the child the rest of the section had a drugs quiz to complete. Numbers aren’t a strong point for many of us so you can imagine how that went! But don’t fret, the child was saved and the quiz completed. Just two more stations left. Next on to the
ward; the challenge in here? Guess the condition in the pictures given. Some of the answers were lice, impetigo, sunburn, and frostbite so you can imagine what some of those pictures looked like! There was a short quiz on some of the medical documentation and then on to the final challenge.
Here I take you back to day one where we had a lesson on blood, how it is stored, who can have which etc. So back to today and we had a quiz, everything taught yesterday was in this quiz and I can tell you as a first year nursing student it was not easy!! We got to the end of the quiz and answered every question; whether it was right was debatable. Oh I nearly forgot... I’m not sure at which point this fit in because I don’t like to think about it but we had to complete the dreaded assault course. This was actually a lot of fun and to top it off we both got over the 6ft wall!
Wow I hear you say; so much in a day and a half, but there is always time at the end for a short service with the Padre. After the service we finally got to find out who was awarded best section. The atmosphere was tense and actually it is fitting that Pte Jones and I were asked to write this as we were in the winning section. We won a t-shirt and we were obviously very happy that we won.
Overall the weekend was a success and on behalf of all the students who took part we would like to thank the directing staff that took the time and effort to make this possible and obviously for giving up their weekend to be there.
LCpl Quinton & Pte Jones DHE