By Sgt. 1st Class Nathan Hoskins, Headquarters, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)
Monrovia, Liberia – The Joint Forces Command – United Assistance DoD Ebola Training Team completed training the first class of workers who will staff the Ebola treatment units October 31st at the National Police Training Center, Paynesville.
The training consists of 8 to 10 days of hands-on and classroom instruction split in two phases – cold phase and hot phase.
The cold phase is conducted by the DETT, which is comprised of service members from the Army, Navy and Air Force, and is led by Col. Laura Favand, the DETT chief of training.
In the cold phase, students go through five days of intense, repetitive training in a simulated ETU. During this phase, the trainers go over every detail multiple times to ensure every volunteer learns and retains the training, said Lt. Col. Matt Fandre, the command surgeon for Joint Forces Command – United Assistance.
To make the training more realistic, the DETT constructed a maze of half-walled rooms that simulate areas in an actual ETU. Here the students go through multiple scenarios they may encounter and practice routine procedures that are critical to controlling the spread of Ebola.
They also learn how to identify possible patients, admit them, and route them through the ETU correctly. In one training scenario, a student in the class mimics varying degrees of the symptoms of Ebola while another student is being evaluated on whether or not he can correctly identify if the patient should be admitted.
To better prepare the health care workers, the DETT also brings in Ebola survivors to interact with the students, giving them first-hand accounts of what Ebola patients experience, said Fandre. This mentally prepares the volunteers for what they’ll encounter.
The hot phase training is conducted by nongovernmental organizations, during which the students care for Ebola patients for three to five days in an operational ETU under close supervision, he said.
Though the hot phase may seem intimidating, those feelings are alleviated by consistent, repetitive, hands-on training during the cold phase, said Sgt. Kevin Scranton-Chaney, a DETT trainer. The students are held to the highest standard – perfection.
Every technique, from sanitizing hands to taking off personal protective equipment, has to be perfect or it could mean more lives lost, said Scranton-Chaney. It’s especially important because teaching one volunteer incorrectly can have a rippling effect among the volunteers.
Initially, the training is for volunteers who will work in the ETUs, but it will change into a course for personnel who will also travel and teach these techniques, said Fandre. This will allow Liberians to continue the course without assistance.
The current form of training will continue weekly until it is no longer needed, said Fandre. Eventually the DETT will create a mobile training team that will travel with a transportable simulated ETU so that location will be less of an issue for those willing to volunteer.
In this first class, the DETT trained 58 healthcare workers, 12 support staff, and 21 cadre members in the first phase of the training program.
The NPTC is capable of training up to 200 health care workers a week.
