I love it when I get comments on how the skills we teach truly do save lives. No matter how much I believe in it, and how much I try to tell people that the skills we teach may one day save your life, it is great hearing the feedback every so often.
These are the events as relayed to me: As many of you know, we began teaching clinical staff of a major metropolitan hospital how to implement ICS into their crisis intervention practices. We teach them how to identify the signs of a potentially dangerous situation, how to try and diffuse it using verbal skills, but most importantly, how to protect their lives if the need arises. A few weeks back a police officer brought to the ER of this hospital a couple to be processed and admitted into the Med-Psych unit. While being processed in the intake area of the ER the girlfriend, who seemed to have been under the influence of some sort of drugs and/or alcohol, attacked the officer. The boyfriend jumped in and the two proceeded to take the officer to the ground, subsequently trying to gain control of the officer's sidearm. Two doctors who train at Masada Tactical, and two nurses who have gone through our training at the hospital reacted to the sounds of the commotion and came to the officer's assistance. Using skills they know, and more importantly implementing the mindset of will to win and survive, they were able to subdue the two individuals until the officer got up and used his Taser on the suspects.
We find that the hardest thing to do with clinical staff during our training is to teach them that although trained to save lives and heal, there are times where violence is needed in order to protect themselves, patients and guests of the institution. This is not an easy task, and it is through continuous repetition and reaffirmation that we are able to change the culture at hospitals.
Seeing physicians and nurses react and apply skills learned is a positive feedback that what we do truly works. If the suspects were to gain control of the officer's sidearm this could have ended being a very grave incident.
I would like to extend my congratulations to the courageous staff.
Stay safe and keep training hard!
Tzviel 'BK' Blankchtein
Masada Tactical, LLC
www.MasadaTactical.com
