MEDICAL ADVANCE PARTY (MAP) 8-WEEK COURSE
This interactive remote-access course will teach you how to plan, manage and run health-care clinics in any type of environment. Over the course of eight weeks, you will learn medical infrastructure in the field, team skills and how to navigate communication and security issues when functioning as advance party for medical outreach groups.
The MAP course will also teach you how to keep resources and staff safe in post-disaster, emergency or remote underserved environments while setting up infrastructure to deliver integrative aid, assistance and health-care.
The Medical Advanced Party (MAP) course will walk students through critically important steps to set up medical clinics that can work well regardless of situation or location.
For instance: Do you understand how to plan for and supply your medical team with nutrition and clean water? Do you know how to make sure that hygiene, sanitation and water are available and abundant for the clinic? Do you have basic camping and off-grid living skills? Will your team have a secure place to store gear, eat, rest and take care of themselves? Does it matter what kind of radio and communication system(s) you select? What are some of the most pressing security issues that may present themselves and how do you watch for them and respond if necessary?
Students will learn to build a strong team interaction while establishing safe team settings and mitigating potential threats to clinic security, while also providing an advance infrastructure to allow medical teams to provide the best quality health-care to communities in need.
Each week, the course will introduce you to these topics and more:
• Community engagement and communication skills
• Translating, understanding multi-lingual and multi-cultural situations and overcoming language and cultural barriers
• Mapping, orienteering and planning medical operations in urban and remote areas
• Basic team planning and understanding of food, hygiene, water, communications and shelter
• Understanding the importance and concepts of security for yourself and your medical team
• Physical and mental fitness training, stress management and team cohesiveness
• Medical team advance party roles and responsibilities
• Planning, building and supervising a clinic in the field
• Surviving and thriving in post-disaster and austere conditions
• Planning, managing and using a radio system and other communication methods
This is a very interactive course. Materials will be sent out to help students master physical and infrastructure skills for successfully running a medical or outreach clinic. In addition to the lectures and demonstrations, students will perform tasks as homework as well as use an integrated video tool to demonstrate their skills in certain topics. Further mastery will follow as the skills are used at the Herbal Off-grid Medical Experience (HOME) and while participating in clinical opportunities. These tasks you will perform as part of the MAP course are as follows:
Task 1: Develop a framework to create and lead a team of healthcare providers & medics
Task 2: Establish and maintain communications, both physical and electronic
Task 3: Plan and move as a team. Establish contingency plans and rally points
Task 4: Recognize and respond to possible threats and issues in individual, team and community settings
Task 5: Pack your own bag with the aid of a basic packing list. Learn essential required gear for mission needs and camp hygiene
Task 6: Perform basic land navigation tasks and area familiarization using a topographical map
Task 7: Create and participate in a personal conditioning regimen
Task 8: Organize basic components required to establish an austere or post-disaster clinic & identify criteria used to prioritize the use of scarce clinic resources
Task 9: Basic camping skills: fire-starting, camp-cooking for an individual, poncho shelter, campsite selection
Task 10: Demonstrate proper and safe use of bladed camp tools (knife, saw, & hatchet) and then hone personal knife for use in primitive and improvised clinical environments
Task 11: Demonstrate rope/cordage skills
Task 12: Demonstrate focused and deliberate communication skills both to deliver information and to navigate cultural and linguistic barriers
Task 13: Using specified principles, gather and analyze information to accurately inform others (or yourself) regarding a topic of interest
