Army suspends IV training?

[CSDGuy]

I can easily teach someone the mechanics of starting an IV. It's actually a very easy skill to learn. I would imagine that a CLS-lite class doesn't teach people how/why fluids should be used an in what quantity, and with a higher emphasis on everyone getting more training in the basics of combat lifesaving skills (first aid for the battlefield), fewer fatal casualties will result from bleeding out and more rapidly assessing and treating the bleeding.

These days, wounded military personnel are transported very quickly to a BAS (or similar level care) or higher... and they can flow very quickly up the chain, stopping only as needed for stabilization. What is also driving some of this that military personnel now wear body armor that pretty effectively protects the trunk and head, so events in the past that would have killed someone outright (and damaged limbs) now just damages limbs... so you see more survivors that need care.

Therefore, everyone should have Basic Combat First aid taught, and people still need higher level care, so a few people with full-on CLS training will still be needed, as will the medics/corpsmen... all at or near the unit level.

[ReconDoc242]

I couldn't agree with CSDGuy more. I remember when I was going thru 18D...and then PA school a few years later, there was always that one guy that was extremely concerned with the latest and most high speed medical technique...yet his basics were seriously lacking....and in combat the basics are what makes the difference in 99 percent of cases. Dont get me wrong advanced field techniques, like the Camel Back Chest tube, have a place in the battlefield....but only in about 1 percent of cases.
As far as PHTLS/TCCC goes, they are okay courses but I would take the techniques presented at those class with a grain of salt. Even more indepth courses like OEMS that have tissue lab application fail to put more emphasis on the most important point: Can the basics be performed under stress with a combative patient by the average care giver.
As CSDGuy stated earlier, a return the basics that can be performed under stress by the average CLS is a step in the right direction and will allow more lives to saved on the battlefield.

[srslyguyzwtf]

My CLS class was 3 days. It was a bit of everything. About two hours of IV sticking, including the class and actual sticking. It definitely could have been better, but each units CLS class is going to be different.

During basic my "Combat Life Saver" class was probably 70% about IV sticking. I think it was just mainly the DSs trying to scare the privates with it.

[chris]

I IVs are the best hangover cures

Are you helping yourself to some saline?

well you know he does he has to with all that jenkem in the ammo cans there.

[mr. wonderful]

Depends at where your at but I know for a fact that the last cycle at fort sill was the last one for now to include IVs in cls, I guess privates were messing up real bad going straight through veins and things of that sort. Main portion of cls will be methods of stopping severe bleeding.