Independence Training - IFAK Life Saver 3/12/16

[Pennzoil]

We have no affiliation currently with Independence Training and paid full tuition for both class slots.


Independence Training - IFAK Life Saver 3/12/16

Cost: $149 per student

Instructors: Glenn and Rebecca

Class size: 16 people

Course Length: 9 hours

- Introductions

Glenn and Rebecca introduced themselves and talked about their backgrounds revolving around emergency medicine.

They also explained that their course curriculum is created as collaboration between all 4 of the Independence IFAK Trainers with different medical backgrounds (military and civilian) and not just from one persons experience/point of view.

Glenn talked about how understanding THE WHY is important to him for his learning style. Glenn wanted to ensure that we left understanding THE WHY behind what they were teaching.

Glenn and Rebecca did an excellent job summarizing the history around the IFAK, TCCC and Combat Lifesaver Course. While this isn’t a certification course this laid a good foundation for people who weren’t familiar or need a refresher on casualty care.

Next the instructors drew out a map of a house and the emergency services available in close proximity (@2miles) then had us students create a timeline on how long it would take to get treatment after an injury. As a class we came up with 13.5 minutes total, which I felt was on the optimistic side from my experience. We would reference back to this time often against how quickly certain wounds left untreated can become fatal.

- Mental Conditioning & Emergency Response

“I can’t believe this is happening” vs “I knew this could happen!”

The instructors went into the mental aspect of preparing yourself for medical emergencies and planning. This also covered if your plan doesn’t work adapt and improvise.

Glenn and Rebecca did a great job covering the Good Samaritan Law, scene and patient assessments. During this time we also learned about trying to control emotions when friends, family members and co-workers require medical attention.

Individual Topics

We covered different topics in segments which involved in depth information, visual aids including pictures/video’s, demonstrations, equipment options passed around while talking about PRO’s/CON’s of the different items, creating improvised equipment and instructor supervised practice on classmates.

- Assessing the scene
- Ensuring scene is safe
- Patient Assessment
- Talked on handling patients with CCW


- Tourniquets
-Application of improvised and dedicated tourniquets
-Myths
-Tourniquet mistakes to avoid
-Numerous different tourniquets were supplied and everyone had a chance to use all the different types. This is an excellent way to find the tourniquet that you prefer without wasting $$$.

- Packing Wounds
-Proper application
-Hands on with Quick Clot silicon training aid
-Numerous options available for everyone to test and PRO’s/CON’s were covered for the different packing materials. Again, Excellent way to find the packing material that you prefer without wasting $$$.

- Hemostatic Agents
- Application
- Covered when to use
-Numerous examples on hand and PRO’s

-Chest Seals
-Application of improvised and dedicated chest seals
-When to apply chest seals
-Symptoms and what to monitor

-Abdominal Injuries
- What to look for and how to position patient
- How to treat

-Amputations & Impaled Objects
- How to treat and what to look for

-CPR & Airway
-History and reason for recent changes. I've just recently attended a CPR & First Aid class for certification and got more out of Glenn's 30minuteish discussion then the entire certification course I attended.


-Shock Treatment
-Treat for shock and Hyperthermia/Hypothermia due to environment or blood loss

-Graphic/Gross Wound Fixation
-Discussed life threating vs non life threating wound identification

- IFAK Maintenance
- Expiration dates on items and what the expiration date is for
- What to check regularly on the different items in your IFAK
- You can’t use your kit if you don’t have it

- Hands on Scenarios (we had 3 instructors during this portion)
- Good scenarios with real props for hazards that caused the injury, good fake blood and quality trauma simulations.
- Class broken into groups to perform and observe multiple differing scenarios from scene assessment to shock treatment
- Students observing provided peer evaluations at the end of the scenarios


- Pros
1. Liked the hands on experience with the different equipment so we could customize our kits with the equipment we prefer without spending $ on items we won’t use
2. Hands on experience built confidence in handling medical emergencies
3. Teaching style was excellent with open class environment and class participation
4. Great use of visual aids between equipment examples, videos, PowerPoint, demonstrations, Scenarios, etc. They used just the right combination of these during the class.
5. Working Lunch. Glenn & Rebecca ate lunch in the classroom and fielded questions during the entire lunch.
6. We can retake the class for 50% off now that we have already attended it. Cost effective way to stay up to date on medical info. We are planning on taking advantage of this.

- Cons
1. Group size in some of the scenarios could make it difficult to test all your new skills.

My prospective:
I’ve seen Independence Training trainers at a few of the same classes I’ve attended like Frank Proctor and Tom Givens. How they carried themselves as students and the fact they attend training continuing to learn interested me. That mixed in with a recommendation from a training buddy.

This class was very good and didn’t disappoint. I left impressed by this class and the amount of information they packed into one day. Pace of the class was not rushed and from what I seen in the peer reviews everyone retained what they learned.

Also, if you look at the course cost for $149 dollars you can try out and decide on the medical equipment that you like and don’t like for your own kit. This alone can pay for the class, as we all know medical items cost adds up fast especially if you don’t know what you want.

This was my wife’s first foray into medical training and she had a great time. On the way home she talked about building more medical kits and knew exactly what items she wanted stocked. Good stuff.

Wife’s prospective:
This kind of training is an extremely helpful life skill and something all people should know.

[Cecil Burch]

I have enjoyed and learned much from all of the classes I have taken with Glen. Good guy, great shooter, excellent instructor.

This is how much I trust Glen. He is the primary instructor for my son's fundamental firearms training. My son has taken carbine and handgun classes with Independence, and will be taking the advanced pistol class soon as well as the CCW course when he is old enough (he's 19 now).

I have been wanting to take the IFAK class for a while. Thanks for the review Pennzoil!

[Al T.]

Excellent review, wish they were closer. Thanks!

[Pennzoil]

I have enjoyed and learned much from all of the classes I have taken with Glen. Good guy, great shooter, excellent instructor.

This is how much I trust Glen. He is the primary instructor for my son's fundamental firearms training. My son has taken carbine and handgun classes with Independence, and will be taking the advanced pistol class soon as well as the CCW course when he is old enough (he's 19 now).

I have been wanting to take the IFAK class for a while. Thanks for the review Pennzoil!

Glen said something along the lines of if you take one class with Independence Training this is the class to take. That said when my schedule permits I'm going to try and attend some of his shooting classes. Look forward to training with your son in a class someday and remember how well your daughter shot in Chris's class years ago.

This leads into one of my key personal takeaways from the class. I've worked with familiarizing and training my young daughters on the different medical gear including tourniquets but never spent time with my wife on medical training. Thankfully this class brought her up to speed, but going forward starting this weekend we are going to start doing some family training with fake wounds, blood, etc. First up is training with different TQ's and the pros vs cons of the different types.
FYI: the TQ on the bottom is utter POS and when pressure is release with swing around and smack you i.e.. example of what we don't want.

If people are interested, I'm going to slowly update this thread with my key takeaways from the class incase people are interested. I have a number of them and didn't have time to add them to the initial AAR.

Excellent review, wish they were closer. Thanks!

Thanks! Hopefully you have a good option in your area.

[scw2]

I'm interested. Trying to clear my schedule to make John Murphy/Greg Ellifritz's class since I know nothing about first aid, so the more I soak up randomly the better. At least I'll be set up with your Ankle Med Kit, just waiting for the TQ I bought to come in off backorder...

[Pennzoil]

I'm interested. Trying to clear my schedule to make John Murphy/Greg Ellifritz's class since I know nothing about first aid, so the more I soak up randomly the better. At least I'll be set up with your Ankle Med Kit, just waiting for the TQ I bought to come in off backorder...

Awesome! If you make it to the class let us know what you think of the trainers/class please.

I brought my AFAK to this IFAK training class but didn't use it during the class. Since I make the AFAK I didn't want to look like I was trying to promote my product. One thing I'll say is that I'm still happy with items I've stocked my personal AFAK with post class. Glen doesn't like my TQ choice and I respect his opinion but I'm going to stay with it as it works for me.

[Cecil Burch]

Glen said something along the lines of if you take one class with Independence Training this is the class to take. That said when my schedule permits I'm going to try and attend some of his shooting classes. Look forward to training with your son in a class someday and remember how well your daughter shot in Chris's class years ago.

She still tries to out shoot me whenever we shoot together

My son lives up to his sister's example. During the carbine course, during the last drill we did for score he beat me. So, after paying his tuition, letting him use my AR, letting him burn up my ammo, and me gently encouraging him the entire course, do you know what he did? After Glen read the score and he realized he beat me, he turned to me, and loud enough for the rest of the class to hear, he said "Suck it, Dad!"............... little bastard. And as soon as his sister found out, she texted me with as many scathing insults as her double B.S degrees brain could come up with.

I hate my kids.

Let me know when you sign up for another class with Glen. I will try to do that one too. I love his offering of retaking classes at 50% percent off!

[Pennzoil]

Let me know when you sign up for another class with Glen. I will try to do that one too. I love his offering of retaking classes at 50% percent off!

I will for sure when I get a chance to sign up for one of his shooting classes. Unfortunately this year I probably won’t be taking many classes due to taking care of a sick family member.

I’m currently signed up for the invasive trauma interventions in June but that requires prior attendance to the IFAK class.

[Pennzoil]

Some of my other personal takeaways from the class:

1. Mentioned this above but need to start doing medical training more with entire family not just the kids.

2. Class recommended using a Patient First Aid Report Form. They supplied an excellent example on 8.5 11 sheet of paper. I wanted to add this to my kit but needed something smaller more integrated so printed out my own version on label paper and stuck it to my HALO chest seal package. I moved my precut gorilla tape to other side of the seal.

Originally I just planned on writing it on my ankle kit but I think having something to follow helps you from missing things.

3.Glenn mentioned gloves expire/wear out fast so I plan on changing mine out more often to minimize the chance for developing holes.

4.Keep your gloves on. Noticed during the scenarios that multiple people took the gloves off to early. I'm used to working in latex and nitrile gloves so this isn't a huge problem for me but good to keep in mind.

5.Chest seals rock! And trying to improvise one with one hand while sealing the hole with your other sucks... It is literally the difference of 10-second peal and stick vs 5 minutes of BS if you have enough tape on hand to get a seal.

[ST911]

Some of my other personal takeaways from the class:

1. Mentioned this above but need to start doing medical training more with entire family not just the kids.

1:1 IFAKs for each member of the family sized for application (i.e. school/day bag), plus household and car kits. Age-appropriate games/drills make it fun. Depending on age, you may find kiddos Awana, scout, or sports teams interested too.

2. Class recommended using a Patient First Aid Report Form. They supplied an excellent example on 8.5 11 sheet of paper. I wanted to add this to my kit but needed something smaller more integrated so printed out my own version on label paper and stuck it to my HALO chest seal package. I moved my precut gorilla tape to other side of the seal. Originally I just planned on writing it on my ankle kit but I think having something to follow helps you from missing things.

Download and print, buy, or make your own patient care card. Google "casualty care card" for endless options. Local print shops can do pads of custom 3x5 or 4x6 cards on the cheap. Can also be printed to sticker stock to peel and place. If so inclined, tweak for audience (scouts, congregation, etc).

Example: https://www.tacmedsolutions.com/prod...-casualty-tag/

5.Chest seals rock! And trying to improvise one with one hand while sealing the hole with your other sucks... It is literally the difference of 10-second peal and stick vs 5 minutes of BS if you have enough tape on hand to get a seal.

Seals are best, but the short interval to set up an expedient isn't significant in the patient.