Preparing Emergency Physicians for the Next War: Residency Capstone Training in Prolonged Casualty Care

As the landscape and resources of combat operations change and become more unpredictable, the ability to provide prolonged combat casualty care in austere environments will become increasingly important. Prolonged casualty care (PCC) (until recently, prolonged field care [PFC]) is an emerging niche of military medicine that requires specific and dedicated training within our military medical education curricula for providers at all levels. That training should incorporate both didactic classroom instruction and high-fidelity, hands-on, full-scale training in order to prepare providers for delivering care beyond the standard doctrinal timelines employed in recent combat operations. A resolute commitment to training providers in the application of the core principles of PCC will improve the combat readiness of providers and decrease the morbidity and mortality of combat casualties. Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center's Emergency Medicine Residency Training Program Joint Emergency Medicine Training Exercise is an example of high value training in all facets of military medicine, including prolonged casualty care.