Photo By Douglas Stutz | Promotion Trio…In conjunction with NHB/NMRTC Bremerton commemorating National Nurses...... read more read more
It was a day of selfless service acknowledged. It was a day of junior officers promoted. It was a day of legacy honored.
Navy Medicine Readiness Training Command Bremerton staff gathered May 11, 2023, to commemorate National Nurses Week, May 6-12, and the Navy Nurse Corps 115th birthday, officially held every May 13 since 1908.
For Capt. Shawn Kase, NMRTC Bremerton chief nursing officer, it was also a day to reflect back 26 years to when he initially arrived as a Navy Nurse Corps ensign at the command he will soon retire at in several months.
“It’s been a privilege and honor to serve with so many talented Nurse Corps officers over the years. We [nurses] have played a vital role in the success of our organization and ensuring the safety of our patients,” said Kase, approaching the end of 35 years of Navy service.
The planned events began with Lt. Cmdr. Brad O’Keefe, pediatric nurse practitioner and command Daisy Award coordinator, explaining to those in attendance that two staff nurses had been nominated for the prestigious Daisy Award. The award, established in 1999, is an international program which rewards and celebrates extraordinary clinical skill and compassionate care given by a nurse.
“It was a really tough decision between two really great candidates, Stu Ewy of the Main Operating Room and Amy Myers, Oral Maxillofacial Surgery. Unfortunately, we can only pick one. But recognition in itself is a fantastic compliment which should not go unnoticed,” O’Keefe said, adding a reminder for all those in attendance to nominate worthy nurses as well as hospital corpsmen for the accolade.
Ewy was chosen for going above and beyond in providing care needed in the Main OR. He was presented with a certificate and also received a sculpture called the Healer’s Touch, hand-carved in Zimbabwe.
Ewy’s nomination read in part, “Stu has been an operating room nurse since 2016. He is an expert in his field and specialty of orthopedics. He is well-loved and trusted by surgeons and members of the operating room team. He takes great measures to ensure his patients are safe and comfortable during surgery.”
Three Nurse Corps ensigns were then called forward with each – James Cramer, Taylor Fink and Dwight Mitchell – ceremoniously promoted to lieutenant junior grade. The trio are part of over 50 Navy Nurse Corps officers assigned to NMRTC Bremerton, along with approximately 40 government service nurses and nearly five contractor nurses.
Lt. j.g. Agustina Aure followed with a segue into the Nurse Corps 115th birthday, highlighted with a designated representative from each Navy Medicine corps - Civilian Corps, Dental Corps, Hospital Corps, Medical Corps and Medical Service Corps - delivering well-wishes to the Nurse Corps.
Capt. Patrick Fitzpatrick, Naval Hospital Bremerton director and NMRTC Bremerton commanding officer, then offered a rhetorical question to those in attendance, “It takes a week to recognize all the things that nurses do. Why is that?”
“Because an entire week is needed! Whether you are a nurse on a hospital ship giving care on a humanitarian mission in South America or the Pacific, whether you are at a combat hospital down range giving blood, whether you’re in the immunization clinic holding the hands of a child, what we do is complex. We were once tolerated 115 years ago. Now we are critical to the mission of Navy Medicine. Not only that, but we’re also very strongly desired for our clinical skill. Nurses are everywhere. I am proud of you and am happy to serve with you. I wish all our nurses’ happy birthday. And thank you, thank you, thank you for everything you do, every day,” stated Fitzpatrick.
The entire week has featured a variety of events recognizing nurses, from raffle drawings to ice cream socials to catered lunch to ‘chalk the walk’ outdoor illustrative event.
May 12 is also the birthday of Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), the founder of modern nursing. Two years before Nightingale passed away, then-President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Naval Appropriations Bill on May 13, 1908, that authorized the establishment of the Nurse Corps as a unique staff corps of the Navy.
Nurse Corps officers and nurses handle a host of specialties as part of their overall duties, including family nurse practitioner, executive medicine, nurse anesthetist, clinical nurse, perioperative nursing, maternal child, ambulatory, medical surgical, critical care, and pediatric nursing.
Projecting back 115 years ago when the Navy Nurse Corps came into being, NHB/NMRTC Bremerton was a 16 bed, wooden, two-story frame building used as ‘Sick Quarters’ on Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. America’s involvement in World War One was still a few years away. In those times and in those conditions, such as now, the Navy Nurse Corps compassion, character and competence were hallmarks of all they did.
Just as it is today.
| Date Taken: | 05.11.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 05.12.2023 09:41 |
| Story ID: | 444613 |
| Location: | BREMERTON , WASHINGTON, US |
| Web Views: | 146 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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