Military Occupational Specialty, Healthcare Specialist, prepared as a battlefield medic to go into combat to save soldiers' lives. As a healthcare specialist, you will gain skills for hospital and peacetime duties as well. You will become adept in emergency care and able to provide ongoing casualty care and support in evacuation. You will be trained to serve in emergency departments, ambulatory departments, medical surgical units, and intermediate care wards in both fixed and mobile hospitals. During your months of training as a healthcare specialist, you will learn the basic techniques of measuring and recording blood pressures, pulse and respiration rates, and temperatures. You will learn to give intravenous infusions, to obtain blood and other specimens, to dress in bandage wounds, to treat patients in shock, and to train others in first aid. You will be required to handle and dispose of contaminated needles and waste, and to keep patients and patient areas clean. You will become certified in basic life support, and must pass the National Registry Certification Test for Emergency Medical Technicians in order to graduate. After your military occupational specialty training, you will be assigned to a field unit or to a fixed facility. Your duties may include supporting your unit in humanitarian, peacekeeping, homeland security, and combat operations. Since medical equipment and challenges are constantly changing, you will be required to update your skills periodically and to maintain a valid unrestricted EMT certification. You will also be given an opportunity to qualify for additional training in a variety of sub-specialties. The training and experience you gain while serving as a healthcare specialist may help prepare you for such positions in civilian healthcare as Emergency Medical Technician or Medical Assistant. Improved survival on the battlefield depends largely on early treatment. In most cases, it is the healthcare specialist who provides initial medical care for a battlefield casualty. Often, without the usual supervision of an on-site physician or physician assistant. The healthcare specialist, providing first response on the healthcare team, knowledgeable and ready with skills for the battlefield and beyond, filling a pivotal role in the Army Medical Department's mission to conserve the fighting strength.