r/TacticalMedicine

Hey y’all!

Taking my TP-C next week, and want to ensure I haven’t missed any study material.

Little bit of background:

6 years of military experience, CLS, TCCC, all the things..

7 years of civilian EMS, 4 as a CCP in a high call volume service.

1 1/2 years as swat medic for local Sheriff’s office. Well versed in movement, tactics, and so forth.

Took the whole pocket prep quiz bank of 400 questions, and scored a 93%.

Read Kyle’s book front to back, back to front as it seems to be everyone’s go to.

Read TECC/TCCC guidelines.

Took ImpactEMS’s K9 medic course just to learn more about K9’s as I assume it will be on the test.

Am I cooked chat? Or should I be okay? Any recommendations?

I haven’t seen a lot online about it so I figured I’d throw out an honest and humble review of the Impact EMS Tactical Medical Provider course from the perspective of someone who is not a medic and is still learning this side of the profession.

For context, my background is primarily public safety/security with an EMR certification, prior EMT experience, NOLS Wilderness First Responder, firearms instruction, active violence response instruction, and some event medicine experience. I work in a large public venue environment and around LE/fire/EMS operations regularly, but I am not a paramedic, SWAT medic, or high-level tactical medical operator like many of the guys in this sub.

I originally took this course primarily to help fulfill some of my NREMT continuing education requirements while also getting broader exposure to tactical medicine concepts. I actually found the course because the ads kept showing up in my feed.

After taking the class, I ended up finding Mike Carunchio’s podcast, The World’s Okayest Medic Podcast, including an episode on TEMS with Sam from Prep Medic that I found really interesting.

Overall, I thought the course was a solid foundational overview of tactical medicine concepts and decent exposure to TCCC/TEMS doctrine. Topics included:

- MARCH/TCCC
- trauma management
- blast injuries
- airway priorities
- tactical phases of care
- SWAT/TEMS concepts
- CBRNE awareness
- damage control resuscitation

The course clearly states it is not a replacement for hands-on TECC or TCCC training, and I completely agree. Tactical medicine is operational medicine in dynamic threat environments, and that simply cannot fully be taught through passive online lectures alone.

One thing I actually appreciated was the instructor’s real-world analogies and honesty regarding the difference between “what the book/exam wants” versus how things may realistically play out operationally. There were multiple moments where the instruction acknowledged the tension between doctrinal exam answers and practical field realities, and I thought that added authenticity to the course.

My biggest critique is that the course felt heavily geared toward doctrinal exam prep rather than operational application. A lot of the testing emphasized:

- exact terminology
- doctrinal wording
- “most correct” board-style answers

I also think there needs to be clearer separation between Tactical Responder (TR-C) prep and Tactical Paramedic (TP-C) prep. At times, advanced paramedic-level concepts were blended directly into responder-level instruction in a way that could definitely overwhelm EMRs or non-paramedic students.

Production quality also felt fairly low budget. Much of the course consisted of lecture videos with slides and pictures inserted throughout. The information itself was often valuable, but I think the course would benefit from:

- shorter modular lessons
- embedded quizzes
- scenario-based learning
- practical case studies
- operational walkthroughs
- movement/extraction integration

That said, I still found value in it and learned a lot from it. It definitely improved my understanding of tactical medicine terminology, doctrine, trauma priorities, and the way the IBSC/TCCC ecosystem approaches operational medicine.

For EMRs, EMTs, armed security, law enforcement, corrections, church safety teams, event medical personnel, or public safety personnel looking for introductory exposure to tactical medicine concepts, I think it’s a worthwhile foundational/exam-prep resource — just not a substitute for hands-on training.

Personally, I think the ideal path is still:

1. Hands-on TECC/TCCC
2. Scenario and operational integration training
3. Supplemental doctrinal/exam prep courses like this

Just my perspective as someone still learning and trying to grow in this area.

Has anyone had experience with wounds believed to be caused by a Tokarev TT-33 or Zastava (Yugo) M57 handgun? The caliber is 7.62mm x 25mm, bottlenecked cartridge. I've only treated one such wound, in Nicaragua where Soviet-bloc weapons were and are abundant. The thigh wound was maybe a little bigger than one from a 9 mm. The victim identified the weapon as a "TT". I ask because the velocity of this cartridge is 1,400 to 1,700 fps. This is a lot but not the usual 2,000 + fps quoted as capable of causing a high velocity wound, with temporary cavity tissue damage. I remember learning to "treat the wound, not the weapon". Nonetheless I wonder if wounds from this caliber are generally worse than those from the much more common 9 mm? Also can there be an overlap zone between low velocity and high velocity wound characteristics? Thanks for any observations.

https://preview.redd.it/po5s6zo0xp1h1.jpg?width=707&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cc79b94ef3bbd9c4b76b4da75fa553a7a11a7fb8

(Edit) I added this graphic as soon as my creaky software finally decided to let me upload it.