During Enduring Promise 2018, medical professionals provided a course to qualify the medical personnel aboard hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) to the standard set by the American Heart Association (AHA).

For the Sailors assigned to Comfort, time underway is an opportunity to refine their skill set to ensure they can meet whatever challenges come their way.

Through a series of classroom instruction and hands-on resuscitation training, Comfort piloted its first Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) course.

“This course gets people comfortable," said Cmdr. Chawn Brown, lead ACLS instructor aboard Comfort. "It teaches people to see a situation and act immediately through knowledge sharing and practice.”

According to the AHA, ACLS courses create a universal standard that develops a basic framework for medical practitioners, giving them the tools to more readily identify and respond to cardiac arrest emergencies, in and out of the hospital setting.

Cmdr. Jack Stansbury, a family nurse practitioner assigned to Comfort, enrolled in the course to maintain his proficiency in providing advanced cardiovascular care in emergency situations.

“This is my 16th time taking this course, but my first time while on board Comfort,” said Stansbury. “While underway, we have fewer resources than the traditional hospital setting; this creates a more real-world setting where you may have to make do with less.”

Comfort’s underway ACLS course benefits health care providers who otherwise would have to take the course back at home, instead of treating patients.

“The underway course enables medical practitioners to do what they do best,” said Lt. Cmdr. Paul Roszko, assistant ACLS instructor aboard Comfort. “Provide quality patient care to those in need.”

Twelve medical professionals have successfully completed the course and earned their ACLS provider certification by the AHA and are ready to render aid — should the situation ever arise.

Comfort is on an 11-week medical support mission to Central and South America as part of U.S. Southern Command’s Enduring Promise initiative. Working with health and government partners in Ecuador, Peru, Colombia and Honduras, the embarked medical team will provide care on board and at land-based medical sites, helping to relieve pressure on national medical systems caused partly by an increase in cross-border migrants. The deployment reflects the United States’ enduring promise of friendship, partnership and solidarity with the Americas.

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