Tourniquet Application Refresher Proposal

Tourniquet Application Refresher Proposal

CM241 – Foundations of Technical Communication

Summary

Officers are responsible for so much information in their daily lives and receive hundreds of hours of training every year to reinforce much of that information; but do not receive reinforcement frequently in the use of a tourniquet on major bleeding wounds they or someone they are helping receive. A video tutorial depicting two different tourniquet brands with explanations in plain English provides an easy way to show the officers how to use the devices and remember it in a high adrenaline situation. This proposal gives further details into the proposal created by Mary Randall, a police officer.

Description

The Problem. In order to become licensed as a police officer in the state of Texas, a candidate must receive 644 hours of training at an accredited police academy. That training consists of numerous topics. Among those topics are penal codes (criminal laws and punishments), traffic codes, police driving, defensive tactics, use of force, combat first aid, use of firearms, mental health, report writing, standardized field sobriety tests, professional demeanor, and family violence. That list is not exhaustive of the topics covered. The amount of time spent on combat first aid is relatively low when compared to the defensive tactics and use of force. It includes the use of tourniquets, but that training is not reinforced after leaving the academy. Police departments rely on their officers to continue to train themselves, instead of providing it as they would other kinds of training like firearms, mental health, or use of force updates.

Audience. Police departments hire and train men and women from a diverse background with various skillsets. They are shaped and molded from wide-eyed, and idealistic cadets into street-ready officers who can use the many training tools they have been given to handle a variety of different types of citizens that they encounter on their calls. The citizens range from nice people who support what they are doing, to victims who are scared and needing to be protected, to people who are openly hostile to the officers who actively try to harm them. Some officers believe they are invincible, some do not. That is based on age, and their own personal attitudes towards themselves. The officers are likely to be resigned about watching the video because it is another training video, so the obstacle to overcome is proving to them that they need to stay in the fight and keep themselves alive when they have the tools to do it.

Content: The tutorial will display the working parts of two common types of tourniquets that they may have been issued. The North American Rescue Combat Application Tourniquet (C.A.T.), which features a “single routing buckle” and a “red elliptical tip” (North American Rescue, 2019) for ease of application in a hurry. The other tourniquet to be used is the RATS Medical RATS Gen 2. This tourniquet features a “simple design that allows for one handed use” (RATS Medical, 2019). Doing this allows for easy transition if there comes a time when a different tourniquet is issued to them. Furthermore, the training will use plain English that is easier for someone experiencing extreme stress to recall, and a few buzzwords and phrases designed to stick in the minds of the audience.

Benefits: The officers who view this tutorial will have a refresher in how to use their own equipment, as well as words and phrases that will stick in their minds. They will be confident in their abilities to save their own lives from a massive bleeding wound in a limb. The higher-ups in the department can be confident that their officers can save their own lives. The benefit of this training being in video format is that it can be uploaded to an intranet system where officers can view it at anytime after the initial training refresher.

Qualifications

Mary Randall is a police officer for a metropolitan police department which serves the citizens of Houston, Texas. She has been an officer for two years but worked as a jail guard for that department for ten years prior. Her thirteen years of experience in a multitude of different situations with myriad people has given her ample opportunities to learn and experiment with different applications of her training. She held the rank of corporal while she was in the police academy and was responsible for ensuring the success of her squad.

Opposition

The opposition to a tutorial like this will come from the officers themselves, as previously mentioned in the audience section of this proposal. It generally comes as an affront to their ego that they have already received training in how to use a tourniquet, and that their training will be enough without further retraining on occasion. The best ways to combat this egotism are to give examples of tourniquets saving the lives of their fellow officers who could have lost their lives and limbs had they not had a tourniquet nor been trained and retrained in how to use them.

Conclusion

Police officers are the glue that holds society together. They are the thin line of defense that holds back the chaos that threatens to overwhelm the citizens who make up most of the communities officers serve. Their lives are important to their department, their family and their community. Police officers need to refresh their memories on how to use their own life-saving equipment in the event of an emergency. The proposed tutorial is the easiest way for officers to refresh themselves once in a formal setting, and again at their own leisure.

References:

North American Rescue. (n.d.). Combat Application Tourniquet (C-A-T). Retrieved November 19, 2019, from https://www.narescue.com/combat-application-tourniquet-c-a-t.html.

RATS Medical. (n.d.). RATS Gen 2 (Orange). Retrieved November 19, 2019, from https://ratsmedical.com/collections/rats-tourniquets/products/rats-gen-2-orange.