Photo By Russell Tafuri | FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. – Two college nursing students sacrificed part of their summer...... read more read more
Two college nursing students sacrificed part of their summer break from pursuing their nursing degrees to don hospital scrubs and participate in the U.S. Army Nurse Summer Training Program at Blanchfield Army Community Hospital, Fort Campbell, Kentucky, from July 5-31.
These students are members of the Army’s Reserve Officer Training Corps, which provides up to 100% of tuition coverage at more than 1,000 colleges and universities. According to the U.S. Army Cadet Command, each summer, more than 200 Army ROTC cadets with an academic major of nursing are selected for NSTP at one of 20 military hospitals in the United States and abroad.
“The Army Nurse Corps, and the Military Health System as a whole, have an important role in our national defense strategy,” said BACH Nurse Summer Training Program Director Lt. Col. Adam Campbell.
The MHS provides medical and dental care so that service members are in good health and capable of deploying where our nation needs them. Army nurses are a component of the MHS ready medical force capable of going anywhere our nation needs to establish and sustain healthcare.
The nurse cadets represent the future of the Army Nurse Corps, and NSTP introduces cadets to the Army Medical Department and to the roles and responsibilities of an Army Nurse Corps officer.
The NSTP cadets hone their skills through this program to prepare for their senior year of nursing school. The program also gives them real-world experience of what their future as an Army nurse will be like, according to Army Nurse Capt. Chelsey Freland, assistant coordinator for cadet training at BACH and clinical nurse officer in charge of the hospital’s in-patient unit.
“The cadets are able to rotate through all areas of the hospital based on their skill set and where they see themselves in the next couple of years. The two cadets will get their medical-surgical experience now before finishing school and starting the Clinical Nurse Transition Program.
“These cadets have chosen to shadow nurses in the BACH ICU or ER areas to get a feel for what areas they would like to see or possibly specialize in,” stated Freland.
As an NSTP alumna herself, Freland shares her personal feelings about the benefits of this program and how it helped her when she was pursuing her nursing degree at a civilian college, going through clinicals at a civilian facility.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to specialize in or if I even wanted to specialize at all, and this program is a great learning experience and an eye-opening opportunity to see how the Army clinicals are compared to their civilian hospital clinicals,” admitted Freland.
As the current NSTP assistant coordinator, Freland implemented additional training evolutions in the program to expose the cadets to the Army leadership roles they will fill upon becoming commissioned Army officers as well as expose them to the tradition and history of the Army presence here at Fort Campbell.
“The cadets conducted PT (physical training) with troop command and the medical company command, and they also toured Fort Campbell and the museum to get a sense of the history and tradition tied to this post and the commands here,” said Freland.
Each cadet is paired with a nurse preceptor, an experienced licensed nurse who is qualified to teach and supervise nursing students. At BACH, the cadets rotate shifts through one of four main areas in the hospital: the medical-surgical ward, the emergency center, ICU, and labor and delivery. They each completed 144 hours of clinical nursing experience during their rotation.
Many of the nurse cadets in the program have a military legacy in their DNA, making this program the perfect fit.
“I feel like I grew up in the military. My father retired from the Marine Corps after serving 23 years. Upon my graduation from high school, I applied for and received a three-year ROTC scholarship for nursing school. I'm currently pursuing my bachelor’s degree in nursing at the University of Southern Mississippi,” stated NSTP Nurse Cadet Lilian Burton.
Burton explains why she applied for this program. “I really wanted more hands-on learning for nursing. In nursing school, we do have clinicals every week but it’s in a larger group setting. Here with this program, I'm able to get more one-on-one hands-on training, and it has boosted my confidence in nursing procedures. It has also given me the opportunity to experience the military side of nursing and given me great insight into Army leadership and all the career opportunities available in Army medicine and how I can take my nursing career further if I want to,” she stated.
“This program is helping me with the transition to a military lifestyle, and now I have a better idea of how my career is going to go once I graduate and get my commission as an Army Nurse officer,” she added.
Brandon Walls is also a nurse cadet currently participating in the NTSP at BACH. Walls is pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing at the University of Virginia's College at Wise, where he entered through the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps Simultaneous Membership Program. The SMP enabled Walls to participate in the ROTC scholarship for nursing while being enlisted in the Army National Guard as a combat medic, Army Military Occupational Specialty code 68W.
Upon graduation and receiving his nursing degree, Walls will then commission as an Army Nurse officer and augment to active duty in the U.S. Army.
Walls explained why he chose to apply for the NSTP and how it will benefit him.
“It's an excellent opportunity to get hands-on experience in what my job and my life will look like when I graduate and earn my commission as an Army Nurse. This program does take part of my summer, but it prepares me for my future so I'll know better what I'll be doing in nursing but also as a commissioned Army officer,” stated Walls.
“This program, this experience, has been fantastic. I've been shadowing nurses in the ER department and getting hands-on knowledge and experience in real-life situations is amazing,” he added.
Army medicine offers a variety of nursing areas of concentration to choose from, including critical care, perioperative, emergency trauma, public health, mental health, and gynecological/obstetrics, as well as advanced practice opportunities as nurse practitioners, certified nurse anesthetists, and certified nurse midwives.
In addition to their rotations at BACH, the cadets had the opportunity to visit the Fort Campbell-based 531st Hospital Center during a field exercise and experienced how the Army delivers life-saving healthcare in deployed environments.
The 531st Hospital Center is a mobile healthcare unit of medical experts and equipment that can be deployed to provide advanced care overseas and in the United States. Its subordinate units include the 586th Field Hospital, 175th Surgical Detachment, 41st Medical Detachment, and 431st Intermediate Care Ward Detachment. The team provides services such as intensive and intermediate medical care, surgery, dental and pharmacy, laboratory services, and others.
At the conclusion of NSTP, the cadets will return to their schools for the fall term.
"I am so glad I got the opportunity to come here and learn. We have done clinicals back at school, but having the opportunity to train with Army nurses in a military hospital was so beneficial," said Nurse Cadet Burton.
The U.S. Army Cadet Command partners with universities to recruit, educate, develop, and inspire senior ROTC cadets.
To learn more about ROTC college scholarship and training opportunities, visit armyrotc.army.mil
| Date Taken: | 07.30.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 07.31.2024 14:19 |
| Story ID: | 477475 |
| Location: | FORT CAMPBELL, KENTUCKY, US |
| Hometown: | CLARKSVILLE, TENNESSEE, US |
| Hometown: | FORT CAMPBELL, KENTUCKY, US |
| Web Views: | 259 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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