Sure, you got it, but do you know how to use it?

At work, we are almost regularly being issued gadgetry that I am not entirely certain how to use. They have given us GPS things, which I am still trying to figure out the nuances of. Then they installed a mapping program in our in car computers. It is a great tool, but they assumed we would all know how it worked just because they installed it in our cars.

I have been extensively trained in the care and use of the M-16 type rifle, which they issued to us last year. Even though I am pretty confident with my rifle, there are some people that I don't want to be anywhere near when they pull theirs out. Not that they are bad people, the training they have received just doesn't seem adequate.

Now they have given us, among other things, a medical trauma kit. The official name is a Combat Casualty Response Kit. This appears to be a handy tool. We wanted to get them because we are often out in remote areas and the possibility of being involved in a violent encounter is fairly high. If this happens, someone is going to get shot and it is good to have some supplies to help us deal with that. It really doesn't look good in our reports if we say something to the effect of, "I then stood and watched as the subject bled to death."

Unfortunately, we have some items in the kit that I have no idea how to use and our squad medic is not even allowed to use. Since I don't have advanced medical training, I am allowed to use them. I just would be clueless as to how to do it.

For instance, the Robertazzi Nasopharyngeal Airway or even the Air Release System for needle decompression. Needle decompression? The kit even has a handy triage tagging system, so I can use some chart to figure out if the patient I have been working on is Immediate, Delayed, Expectant or Dead (the Dead one I can figure out).

Actually I think the needle decompression thing is to release pressure to your lungs so you can breathe better. I went for a hike with Diane today and I was wishing I had brought that thing along. On the steepest part, I would have been seriously tempted to stick it into my chest to try to get some more air.