SAN DIEGO– The Mentor, Train and Evaluate (MTE) program, led by the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED), brought their knowledge and capabilities to the West Coast for the first time, with a visit to the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) from Aug.14-18, 2023.

The primary goal of MTE is to strengthen the readiness by optimizing and solidifying medical processes and procedures across the Navy Fleet.

“This is a collection of about five hundred years of knowledge,” said Cmdr. Gabriel Gizaw, the senior medical officer aboard Theodore Roosevelt. “Outside perspective is always welcome. The team is really good at process mapping, and they’re able to provide information to us that will better make our carrier efficient, effective and ensure that we can serve the greatest number of patients that we can in an effective way.”



MTE teams, comprised of subject matter experts from various naval medical hospitals around the country, began as a pilot program in 2021.

“It is a process and a program that has been brought together to really look at the quality of clinical care on our ships and in the fleet, as well as taking it to the Marine Corps side,” said Capt. Charlene Ohliger, assigned to U.S Fleet Forces Command and a nurse on the MTE team.

According to MTE team members, one of the biggest challenges Navy Medicine faces is communication throughout the fleet.

“Mentorship for our medical team in the fleet with medical that is serving into our Medical Treatment Facility (MTF) and our clinics, so that the care that is performed here is equivalent and the standard is what you would receive if you were in a hardened building of an MTF,” said Ohliger,
Beyond that, MTE focuses on preparing shipboard medical to be adaptive and resilient for all of the uncertainties and challenges that naturally arise when practicing patient care at sea. This includes training shipboard medical to be more innovative, agile, and to strive to continuously improve.

“We’re here to support the war fighters,” said Lt. Cmdr. Adam Eaton, assigned to Naval Medical Forces Atlantic and MTE improvement sciences lead. “We’re here to make sure that whatever the mission demands, medical is able to support what that looks like that. With this, it’s focused on quality. It’s quality improvement.”

In order to bring about this improvement, MTE takes a hands-on approach with shipboard personnel. Those spearheading these programs and developing Navy medical procedures and policies are also working directly with the shipboard medical teams.

“We do a tracer methodology for this,” said Ohliger. “We go through and watch the crew go through the steps, discuss areas of improvement, discuss areas that are best practice that we see, and then provide feedback based on the MTE member’s expertise in that field.”



The MTE team brings with them drill packages designed to best test the response capabilities and capacity of the ship’s medical personnel. This includes going through surgical procedures, labs, taking the patient to the ICU, and even testing the capabilities of the walking blood bank.

“We can simulate what we expect real-time,” said Ohliger. “Whether it’s just a typical injury that may happen shipboard, a laceration or amputation, or we’re talking mass casualty.”

This visit not only assisted Theodore Roosevelt’s medical team, but has an effect on the entire Navy Fleet as well. The MTE team is able to learn from each ship they evaluate and take the information they learn to a higher level looking at the best way to mitigate common issues.

“At the end, the after action is done and we take that up to the Type Commander level and actually up to the Fleet Forces level,” said Ohliger. “We can determine if it is as a systemic issue, or if it’s an improvement issue that we can get at through the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery or some kind of fleet training or instruction.”

These evaluations provide commanders with forceful backup and confidence in their ready medical force. For Theodore Roosevelt, it’s ideal timing.

“They’re almost to the near fight, in workups,” said Ohliger. “It puts TR in a good situation to make adjustments as necessary before going on deployment.”

Theodore Roosevelt is scheduled to deploy sometime in 2024.

For more news from USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), visit www.navy.mil/local/cvn71/.

For more news from the Bureau of Navy Medicine, visit https://www.med.navy.mil/Bureau-of-Medicine-and-Surgery/.