Joint medical operations course builds foundation for joint planning
Joint medical operations course builds foundation for joint planning
By Sgt. 1st Class Jayson Rivera, AR-MEDCOM Public Affairs Office
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. — Military medical professionals and planners from across the Department of Defense gathered at the C.W. Bill Young Armed Forces Reserve Center here Sept. 21-25 for the Joint Medical Operations Course-Basic, a five-day course designed to familiarize service members with joint planning and the integration of medical capabilities across the joint force.
Provided by the Defense Health Agency’s Defense Medical Readiness Training Institute at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, the course brought together 135 students from the Army, Navy and Air Force, representing active-duty, Army Reserve, National Guard, civilian and Defense Health Agency organizations. Students ranged in military pay grades from E-6 to O-6 and represented more than 10 organizations.
Four instructors and more than 18 presenters provided instruction throughout the week, covering joint planning concepts, service-specific planning processes, capabilities and sustainment.
The course gives students a foundation in the Joint Planning Process and helps them understand how their service-specific planning processes fit within the broader joint environment.
Throughout the five-day course, students examine the similarities and differences among service planning processes, including the Army Military Decision-Making Process and other military planning frameworks. Instruction also addresses levels of planning and how national-level strategy informs joint and service planning.
Students then apply those concepts to medical operations, learning how capabilities such as health service support and force health protection contribute to broader operational plans.
Rather than teaching clinical medicine, JMOC-B teaches students how to apply the medical expertise they already possess to operational planning.
“This is teaching them to apply their expertise, that subject matter expertise of actual medicine, patient care, force health protection and adding that to a planning process,” said U.S. Army Col. Joe Pena, commandant of the medical education training campus under DHA.
The course also exposes students to capabilities across the services and the ways those capabilities can support joint operations. Students work alongside peers from different professional backgrounds, including medical providers, operational planners and other specialists.
U.S. Army Reserve Lt. Col. Asavale Larry Sikuka, the AR-MEDCOM assistant chief of staff, said the course helps personnel from different specialties develop a common understanding of joint medical operations.
“JMOC is important in so many aspects,” Sikuka said. “It provides the platform for our service members, medical planners, logistics, cybersecurity — you name it — all those entities to be able to come together and speak as a common operating picture of joint medical operation.”
That common understanding becomes important as medical personnel operate across tactical, operational and joint environments.
“If we don’t understand what’s happening at the joint level, we really have a hard time understanding the message and what’s being asked of us at the operational and tactical level,” Sikuka said.
For U.S. Army Reserve Maj. Olga Elias, an Army staff officer and nurse practitioner, the course provided an opportunity to better understand capabilities available within joint task forces.
Elias said one of the most valuable lessons was recognizing capabilities that service members may overlook while focused on their day-to-day responsibilities.
“There is a tremendous opportunity and possibilities out there that we are not really well informed,” Elias said. “When we join working together with other branches, we can actually be unstoppable.”
The course culminates with students developing and briefing a concept of operations to a combatant commander and staff. The exercise requires students to apply the planning process, integrate medical capabilities and communicate their recommendations within a joint operational environment.
Sikuka said students should leave the course with three fundamental takeaways: understanding the planning process, knowing which organizations and agencies are responsible for specific capabilities, and being able to share information across the enterprise.
The culminating brief demonstrates what students have learned, but instructors emphasize that understanding the planning process is more important than the final product.
The foundation established during JMOC-B gives students a starting point for continued development through experience, additional training and follow-on joint education.
Legal Disclaimer:
EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
