Frequently Asked Questions
Courses and Materials
What can I expect from my Crisis Medicine video course?
Each Crisis Medicine course includes entertaining, sobering, but very approachable video lectures by Dr. Mike Shertz on topics related to caring for casualties in a pre-hospital setting, where there is an ongoing threat or indirect threat to the safety of the casualty and the rescuer. Dr. Shertz uses current and historical events, weaving photos and videos into his lecture components.
Each class also includes hands-on demonstrations by Dr. Shertz, using a variety of teaching adjuncts, including models and role players. Lastly, each class includes scenarios created by Crisis Medicine to demonstrate the skills taught at each level. These life-like, real-world scenarios leave students with a mental starting point for treating casualties in their own environment if called on to help in an emergency.
How long is the course?
When taught at in-person trainings, Crisis Medicine teaches a 1, 3, and 5 day course in Tactical Casualty Care, each requiring a 10-hour training day. Because on-line video students do not conduct their own hands-on skills stations or scenarios, the courses are shorter. The approximate run times of our courses is as follows:
- TC2 course is approximately 8 hours,
- Advanced TC2 is 17 hours
- Complete TC2 course is 23 hours
- Improvised TECC/TCCC is 6.5 hours
- Essential Casualty Care is 3 hours
- First Receivers – No Notice Events is 4 hours
- Tactical-CBRN is 11 hours
- K9 TECC/TCCC for Human Providers is 3 hours
- Air Travel Emergencies is 7 hours (4.5 of which are CAPCE credit eligible).
You can take the courses at your own pace and begin training immediately upon registration.
Your access to the classes is:
- Stand-alone Wound Ballistics selection, Essentials of Casualty Care, TC2, Improvised TECC/TCCC, K9TECC/TCCC, and First Receivers for 3 months,
- Advanced TC2, Air Travel Emergencies, and Tactical-CBRN 6 months, and
- Complete TC2 for 9 months.
What does my class fee include?
Class registration fees cover taking the specific course within the following time periods:
- Selection, Essentials of Casualty Care, First Receivers – No Notice Events, K9, TC2, Improvised TECC/TCCC, within 3 months;
- Advanced TC2 (ATC2), Air Travel Emergencies, and Tactical-CBRN within 6 months, and
- Complete TC2 (CTC2) within 9 months.
Most of the courses include a downloadable workbook. The Essentials, TC2, Advanced, and Complete courses also include a list of recommended items for an Individual First Aid Kit (IFAK) and suggestions on where to purchase items. Tactical-CBRN students likewise have access to an applicable CBRN-IFAK e-book.
Students taking First Receivers will be mailed a laminated checklist for use in an MCI if they provide a mailing address.
Are there prerequisites to taking class?
No. TC2 is generally suited for nearly everyone and is consistent with both the TECC and TCCC guidelines, it also exceeds the educational objectives of the White House Stop the Bleed campaign.
The Advanced and Complete day courses are better suited to students with additional, specialized needs for more advanced interventions. The Complete course teaches paramedic level skills which will be outside the scope of practice for individuals without additional medical credentials.
Similarly, the Tactical-CBRN course covers paramedic level information. The Essentials Course is intended for individuals and organizations wishing to have a solid foundation in casualty care without committing to the entire 7.5 hour course. Each course fee covers one seat and one certificate. The First Receivers – No Notice Events course is intended for non-trauma center, Emergency Department providers such as physicians, nurse practitioners, PAs, nurses, and techs.
Both the Improvised TECC/TCCC and K9 TECC/TCCC for Human Providers assume you are familiar with the TECC/TCCC guidelines and have an existing skill set on which to build.
Which topics are covered in these classes?
| SKILLS: | Tactical Casualty Care | Advanced TC2 | Complete TC2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| TC2 Train Now | ATC2 Train Now | CTC2 Train Now | |
| Tourniquet | X | X | X |
| Bandaging/Pressure Dressing | X | X | X |
| Recovery Position | X | X | X |
| Basic Airway Maneuvers | X | X | X |
| Moving Casualties | X | X | X |
| Wound Packing | X | X | X |
| Nasal Airways | X | X | |
| Decompression of Tension Pneumothorax | X | X | |
| Surgical Airways | X | ||
| IV / IO | X | ||
| Dedicated Litter Use | X | ||
| Hypothermia Prevention Kit | X | ||
| Cost – Online | $150 | $395 | $595 |
| Cost – In Person | $275 | $1,000 | $1,500 |
Can I share my class with my buddy?
Sharing is caring, but not in this case.
Each class registration and enrollment is for one user only. We’d be delighted to send you a small token of our appreciation if you refer your buddy and he/she signs up. Make sure the buddy lists you as ‘referred by’ when they sign up. You can also send your buddy or loved one a gift of a class. We also do not permit group showings of our courses. Each class fee covers one student. Agency pricing is also available for departments with multiple users. Please contact us at logistics@crisis-medicine and we’d be happy to work with you to ensure your personnel is all trained.
Can I download videos?
Videos are not available to download. Email us at logistics@crisis-medicine.com and we’ll see if we can help extend your subscription if you need more time.
Do I get continuing education credit?
Yes! Crisis Medicine is CAPCE accredited. Please check individual courses for the CEH hours and categories.
In-Person Attendance / Certificate & Completion policy
For students attending in-person classes, they must attend 85% of the course material including the full scenario day (if applicable) to obtain a certificate of completion.
Students who attend less than the stated number of hours will receive a certificate of attendance with the number of hours they attended. The total course hours will be noted on the certificate. All certificates will note a reduction in hours for students who miss more than a deminimis amount of time (usually 30 minutes).
All students will have their actual attendance time reported to CAPCE when requesting CAPCE credit, in accordance with CAPCE policies.
Payment
Why won’t my payment go through?
Apologies if you’re having issues registering for class. If you are struggling to purchase a class please contact us by emailing logistics@crisis-medicine.com or call us at 1 (503) 765-7615. We are generally available 9-4 PST. Here are a few common solutions that you can also try to solve your problem.
1 Make sure all the information you’ve entered is correct. The most common reason for a payment not going through is a typo.
2 At this time we accept Paypal, Stripe, and Apple Pay, which covers most major credit cards
3 Try using another browser, Firefox and Chrome usually work the best. Make sure you do not have pop up blockers or do not track turned on because it can interfere with the operation of the learning portal.
4 Try using a private/incognito browser to see if something is caught in your computer’s cache that is blocking your payment.
I bought a class and it isn’t showing up
That’s a hassle, and we’re sorry! First, don’t panic, we’re going to get through this together.
- Start by checking to see if you received a confirmation email. The confirmation email is the best way to know if your registration was processed.
- Next, please check your spam folder to make sure it’s not there. If you can’t find the email, there’s a good chance that the purchase didn’t go through. Sometimes that happens because some of the fussy parts of the credit card or address were mistyped. If your purchase didn’t go through you can try repurchasing the class, or
- if you’d like some more assistance, you can contact us by logistics@crisis-medicine.com or call us at 1 (503) 765-7615. We are generally available 9-4 PST (GMT -8).
How do I get a refund
We’re sorry you’re not 100% happy, email us at logistics@crisis-medicine.com so we can either help solve any issues.
Should you become dissatisfied with your online class within the first 30 days after purchase and have not substantially completed the course, Crisis Medicine will refund the full amount of your purchase and subsequently terminate your access.
Refunds are not available for customers more than 30 days after a purchase, or if a substantial amount of the course material has been viewed. Refunds are not available for accounts which have violated the terms of service; violations are determined at Crisis Medicine’s sole discretion. If Crisis Medicine determines you are abusing our refund policy, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate your account and refuse future use of the Service without delivering a refund. To request a refund or to ask a question regarding the 30-day money-back guarantee, email logistics@Crisis-Medicine.com.
For in-person courses, refunds will not be issued if cancellation is made without two weeks’ notice ahead of the class start date.
Account Issues
Changing account name
If you are logged in at the site, click on “Profile” in the upper right corner. You will see a series of tabs. You can change your name here, that is the name that shows on your completion certificate.
Unfortunately, usernames for the website cannot be changed. If there is a problem with your user name, please contact us at logistics@crisis-medicine.com and we can administratively change it on our end. Note, if you have begun your class, a change to your user name may clear any progress you have made thus far.
How do I change my password?
Click the “Login” and then click “Lost Password.” An email will be sent to the email address on file almost immediately. If you do not see the email, please check your spam filter. System generated automatic messages such as this often fall victim to the spam folder. One way to avoid that problem is to ensure crisis-medicine.com is on your list of trusted domains & email senders.
I’m having other technical issues
Answers to common student questions about the learning portal can be found at: navigating the learning portal,
Moving between lessons, checking quiz answers, CAPCE forms, how to download and print your certificate and more. And as always, if you encounter issues, just email us at logistics@crisis-medicine.com.
Technical Issues
Are classes only available in the United States?
Absolutely not! Classes are currently only offered in English, but they are available anywhere that you can reach a reliable internet connection.
Requirements for using a mobile device?
Classes support both Apple iOS an Android mobile devices.
What are the system requirements?
Crisis Medicine courses are all taught via streaming video. Therefore, a reliable internet connection speed above 5 Mbps is recommended. Students wishing to download the course workbook will need to have some local storage available.
Which browsers do you support?
We should be currently supported by all browsers, but if you are experiencing browser-specific issues, please let us know! Chrome and Firefox are very reliable and worth a try if you are encountering any issues.
Note, Microsoft has stopped support for Internet Explorer and the course will not run on IE, try MS Edge instead if you’re using MS products.
Enrolled Students
Where is the class workbook?
If your course includes a workbook, you’ll see it listed in your course, as one of the first item in your list of lessons.
Where is my participation certificate?
You’ll need to watched 95% of the videos and passed the quizzes, and then your certificate will be automatically provided. You can check under Profile/Certificates, or at the top of your course.
Can I download a class?
No, at this time courses are only available for streaming via the internet.
I’m totally hooked, where can I get more?
Dr. Shertz teaches in-person trainings in Portland, Oregon, and occasionally elsewhere. You can check the website or email us at logistics@crisis-medicine.com for more information. Because the live classes feature so much hands-on and skills stations, it is logistically difficult to travel beyond the West Coast to teach this class. But never say never: If you have funding and can support the footprint of the class, be sure to email us to start the discussion.
I have a burning question and Google is not answering it. What do I do?
First, try reviewing the Crisis Medicine website. From articles to information rich pages, you might just find the answer there. Second, try reviewing your workbook. We’ve tried to summarize the most important details there. But if you’re still stumped? Email us. Between working shifts at one of the busiest emergency departments in Oregon, providing medical director support to his fire departments and several large companies, Dr. Shertz has limited time to respond to individual questions, but we’re always happy to try to help people get answers they need for these critical skills. Who knows? Maybe the answer to your question will the next Crisis Medicine article or social media post.