Training / Classes
Reading is not practicing
Applying a tourniquet one-handed on your own thigh, with adrenaline and pain in the way, is a motor skill. It deteriorates under stress unless it has been physically rehearsed. These are the three courses worth your time.
Stop the Bleed
American College of Surgeons
Recognising life-threatening bleeding, packing a wound, and applying a tourniquet with your hands on one. Free or low cost, taught across the country.
- Who it is for
- Anyone. No medical background needed.
- Length
- About 90 minutes
TCCC
Tactical Combat Casualty Care, via NAEMT
The battlefield standard, developed by the Defense Health Agency's Joint Trauma System and endorsed by the American College of Surgeons. Three tiers, from all service members up to medics and corpsmen.
- Who it is for
- Military service members and military medical personnel.
- Length
- 7, 40 or 63 hours by tier
TECC
Tactical Emergency Casualty Care, via NAEMT
TCCC's civilian counterpart, written for care in civilian tactical environments rather than on a battlefield. The current edition trades lecture time for hands-on skills and patient simulation.
- Who it is for
- EMS clinicians and other prehospital practitioners.
- Length
- Accredited for 16 hours of continuing education
Snakestaff Systems does not run, accredit or endorse these courses, and is not affiliated with the organisations that do. They are listed because the skills they teach are the ones our products are designed around. Course availability, cost and content are set by the providers.
Ten minutes at the kitchen table
If a class is not close or not soon, do this instead. Open a tourniquet. Thread the strap through the buckle. Put it on your own thigh and tighten it until it is uncomfortable, then two more turns. Lock the windlass. Do it again with one hand behind your back.
Repetition is what holds up when your hands are shaking. Practice on a Blue trainer rather than the one you carry: same tourniquet, marked so it can never end up in your kit by mistake. A unit you have cranked twenty times is not the one you want in the pouch.