'The Rock' salutes nurses, med techs

Published May 5, 2010
By Maj. Bonnie Stiffler
386th Expeditionary Medical Group

SOUTHWEST ASIA -- Nursing ... a diverse group of dedicated medical professionals whose name is synonymous with caring. As a profession, it covers a wide range of expertise from bedside nursing, to health promotion, to public health, to direct patient care, to leadership ... people with diverse interests and strengths. These men and women possess a passion and strong commitment to their profession.

Florence Nightingale pioneered military nursing when she began organizing women as nurses in the Crimean War. Since then, military nurses have dedicated their service providing healthcare on the home front, during humanitarian crisis, and supporting various military conflicts in war zones. Today, military nurses and medics are highly skilled and mobile to provide critical care most anywhere they are needed and frequently deploy to support often times physically and emotionally exhausting medical missions. In garrison, they routinely work 12-hour shifts, nights, weekends and holidays sacrificing time with their families.

Our Air Force medical technicians synergize medical services in every setting. Their scope of care is much greater than their civilian counterparts. They are all certified emergency medical technicians and receive 18 weeks of specialized training to perform a variety of tasks such as medication administration, vaccinations, patient assessments, casting, phlebotomy, intravenous therapy, wound care, and suturing.

The nurses and medical technicians at the 386th Expeditionary Medical Group support two primary missions: expeditionary medical support for the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing and inter- and intra-theater aeromedical evacuation. The diverse 28-member team here is formed from four active duty bases and brings a combined 206 years of nursing care experience to the mission.

At their home stations these Airmen work in a variety of areas including internal medicine, primary care, flight medicine, pediatrics, medical-surgical units, critical care units, emergency services, women's health, mental health, and labor and delivery. They currently use their talents in the deployed setting to support outpatient clinic visits, medical emergencies, ambulance services, immunization services and aeromedical evacuation of ill and injured warriors.

Seventeen of the medics have deployed previously. Their past deployment experience varies from running a ward in a detention hospital at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; to providing care on the U.S. Navy ship Mercy after the tsunami catastrophe in Southeast Asia; to augmenting medical support for war casualties at forward operating bases in Iraq and Afghanistan; to working at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany and aeromedical evacuation operations across the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility.

Nurses and technicians are essential in providing safe, high-quality care all over the world. They see aspects of human nature most people will never see and their compassionate competence is integral in helping patients and their families through times of pain, overwhelming joy and devastating grief.

National Nurses Week kicks off May 6 and runs through May 12, the birthday of Florence Nightingale, who is commonly referred to as the founder of modern nursing. Please take this time to thank these professionals for their tremendous contributions to the mission.