Course Pre-requisites:

1. Current ITLS Basic Course Certification
2. Must sign a Release and Liability Waiver prior to course attendance (which will be included in pre-course package)
3. Completion of Pre-course knowledge evaluation.

Equipment required for students to bring:

• Safety Boots
• Long sleeve shirts & pants/fatigues (they will get dirty!)
• Tactical Medicine Essentials Text Book (issued prior to course)

We also recommend students bring:
Knee Pads, elbow pads, tactical gloves, neck guards, camel back or water vessel.

Equipment Provided:

• Airsoft weapon
• Safety Glasses
• Individual First Aid Kit (IFAK) & Medical Supplies
• All Tactical equipment & gear used during simulation

*** Students are NOT permitted to bring ANY Use of Force Options to the course, including but not limited to: firearms, batons, knives, spray, bangers, or any other weapons. ***

What is Tactical Medicine?
Tactical Medicine is a rapidly expanding subspecialty of Paramedicine. Tactical Medicine Providers (TMPs) are medically trained persons whose mission is to support the wellbeing of special operations or military teams, at the scene of a high-threat critical incident. TMPs are specially trained and may be equipped with unique medical, ballistic, and operational gear. TMPs learn to operate and maintain a unique skill set that allows them to accompany their law enforcement and military colleagues, in an effort to help resolve the crisis without injury.

What is TacMed Essentials?
TacMed Essentials is an organization of highly trained instructors. They are dedicated to sharing their experience with others in order to help ensure that public safety professions and medical personnel are more capable of providing close-up emergency medical care, rendering assistance to law enforcement and military special operations teams. Medical support directly contributes to mission success. The organization is dedicated to increasing the number of "TMPs" throughout the world. These courses are founded and supported by the authors of the new textbook Tactical Medicine Essentials, which has over 120 expert contributors from throughout the world (civilian and military experts) including ITLS founder Dr. John Campbell.

What is Unique About TacMed Essentials?
The TacMed Essentials Basic is a 2-day course that has didactic training and hands-on simulation. This course is designed to teach paramedics, doctors, police and military personnel how to provide tactical medicine in high-threat environments. Those who complete this challenging course will take home an enhanced skill set of tactical medical skills and will have a far better knowledge of tactics to respond in a critical community crisis. All students who have taken this course are able to take home the lessons learned and apply it to their daily EMS / Medical / Law Enforcement & Public Safety profession. Some have gone further to take Advanced TacMed training and become active members of tactical teams. TacMed Essentials is endorsed by the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), and the TacMed Essentials (TME) course that was developed from the course textbook is officially endorsed by ITLS (International Trauma Life Support).

Key Highlights of the TacMed Essentials Course:
This course is constructed to support civilian tactical law enforcement, it is not an adaptation of battlefield medicine attempted to be wedged into the civilian sector. Certainly there are excellent military-based principles learned from hard-fought battles, which are incorporated into this course. This course emphasizes team communications, situational awareness, safe handling of weapons, medical threat assessments, improvised extraction techniques unique to the tactical environment, tactical operations, criminal tactics and ways to counter them. In addition, firearms safety, active shooter scenario-based training is the highlight of the course. Each student is provided with tactical and medical equipment for the day. Weapons familiarization and safe handling, live-fire Airsoft pistol force-on-force engagements are utilized during the two 2-day course. The 2 days are mentally and physically demanding and require students to actively participate. These lessons learned by each TMP are useful for every-day street medicine when responding to EMS scenes or other community crisis. Securing and searching before medical treatment is a key principle incorporated into the tactical patient assessment (TPA), using the mnemonic "Call-A-CAB-N-Go-Hot". This approach is a valuable and proven way to approach, assess, and treat casualties.