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Tactical Combat Casualty Care Curriculum

The Military Health System is pleased to host the Committee on Tactical Combat Casualty Care’s (CoTCCC) updated curriculum for the Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) course.

The TCCC course is the military counterpart to the Prehospital Trauma Life Support Course. It is designed for military medics, corpsmen, and pararescuemen who are preparing to deploy in support of combat operations. Casualty care on the battlefield must be the best possible combination of good medicine and good small-unit tactics.

The specifics of casualty care in the tactical setting will depend on the tactical situation, the injuries sustained by the casualty, the knowledge and skills of the first responder, and the medical equipment at hand. In contrast to a hospital Emergency Department setting where the patient IS the mission, on the battlefield, care of casualties sustained is only PART of the mission. TCCC recognizes this fact and structures its guidelines to accomplish three primary goals:

1. Treat the casualty
2. Prevent additional casualties
3. Complete the mission

The TCCC program was developed to customize the principles of good trauma care for successful use on the battlefield.

The need for a standing committee to ensure that the TCCC guidelines are updated as necessary to reflect both new advances in prehospital medicine and battlefield experience with TCCC was identified in the original 1996 TCCC paper. The CoTCCC was established in 2001 and is now part of the Defense Health Board.

The TCCC guidelines are published every 4 years in the Prehospital Trauma Life Support Manual. It has been recognized that TCCC guidelines and curriculum will need to change more often than the 4-year cycle of the PHTLS textbook publication. MHS will include the updated TCCC guidelines and curriculum on its website as they are approved as a way to help get this new information out to the combat medical personnel in the military who need it.

Dates of Changes to Teaching Files

TCCC Guidelines

TCCC Curriculum

Major Changes from Previous TCCC Curriculum of 18 August 2010

Powerpoint Presentations

(To download: right-click and "Save As")

Some presentations include embedded video files which are available below.

TCCC PowerPoint files are "read only." Upon open these files you will be prompted for a password. Bypass password entry by selecting "read only." We are only able to offer these files as "read only."

Training Videos

(To download: right-click and "Save As")

Note: Video files must be downloaded to same folder as the Powerpoint files they appear in for them to play when the instructor clicks on them.

Instructor Guides

Skill Sheets

Practical Exercises (Optional 4 hours)

Skill Sets by Provider Level

Medics’ Lessons Learned

TCCC Equipment

COTCCC Meeting Minutes

COTCCC Journal Watch

TCCC Reference Documents (Reverse Chronological Order)