Maritime Applications of Prolonged Casualty Care Training Scenario: Burn Injury on a Destroyer During Distributed Maritime Operations

As the U.S. Navy further develops the concept of distributed maritime operations (DMOs), where individual components of the naval force will be more geographically dispersed, smaller vessels may be operating at a significant time and distance from more advanced medical capabilities. Therefore, Role 1 maritime caregivers will need to manage injured and disease non-battle injury patients for prolonged periods during current and future contested DMOs. We developed a hypothetical burn injury patient scenario to present an innovative approach to teaching complex operational medicine concepts including austere burn resuscitation, wound care, and Prolonged Casualty Care (PCC) to austere Role 1 maritime caregivers using the Joint Trauma System PCC and Tactical Combat Casualty Care clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) and other standard references. The format includes basic epidemiology of burn injury in the operational maritime environment. The scenario includes a stem clinical vignette, followed by expected clinical changes for the affected patient at specific time points (e.g., time 0, 1 hour, 2 hours, and 48 hours) with expected interventions based on the PCC CPG, appropriate guidelines, and available standard shipboard equipment. Through this process, opportunities to improve both training, clinical skills sustainment, and standard shipboard medical supplies are identified.