ROTC nurses gain experience at LRMC

For 16 future Army nurse corps officers, it was an opportunity to experience situations in a combat hospital that they could have only dreamed about throughout nursing school. These top cadets were selected from numerous colleges in the United States to participate in the Nurse Summer Training Program at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.

The program is offered to students before their senior year of nursing school. It is a one-month internship for future Army nurses that requires the cadets to complete 150 hours of clinical work and prepare a group project about the Patient Caring Touch System to present at graduation. This program allows the cadets to transfer their academic knowledge to actual patient treatment.

As each cadet shadows a nurse from the hospital in many different departments, they are exposed to clinical skills as well as the duties and responsibilities of being an Army nurse corps officer.
Though LRMC is the most desired location for cadets to select, only two groups of eight are chosen to participate at the hospital. There are 19 other locations to choose from in the U.S., but the cadets feel the experience at a combat hospital as well as in a different country would be the most significant for the internship. These cadets stay at the Medical Transient Detachment on Landstuhl and are given the opportunity to explore Germany during their visit.

The first group of eight cadets, who recently completed the program, worked throughout the hospital wards with all types of nurses. In addition to working at the hospital, the cadets experienced in-bound and out-bound flights at the Contingency Aeromedical Staging Facility on Ramstein where they worked first hand receiving service members from downrange and preparing them for their journey back home. Four of the cadets, who participated in the emergency room, labor and delivery, intensive care unit, and pediatric clinic, spoke about their experience during their one-month adventure at LRMC.

Ashley Ross, a senior at Radford University in Virginia, was assigned to the ER at LRMC. Ross said she began her nursing career because the personal relationship she has with God influenced her to pursue her dream of helping people. She also has a full-ride scholarship for nursing and intends to produce the highest quality performance throughout her schooling.

Ross said her experience at LRMC is one she would not trade for the world. As she worked alongside her instructor, she was able to accomplish a lot of interactive practice with IVs (which is something she had not yet done) and patient evaluations. She said she really enjoyed the fact the staff was constantly challenging her to be her best self, even in situations when she was slightly uncomfortable.

Ross said this opportunity has better prepared her for a career as an Army nurse because she was able to experience the combination of the military and medical worlds, taking in all the techniques, strategies and skills of patient care and treatment. She said a memorable experience she will not forget is the work she was able to do with the team at the CASF during an out-bound mission to send wounded warriors back to their families.

Chelsea Farquhar, a senior at Northern Michigan University, was assigned to the labor and delivery ward. Farquhar said she has been a nursing major since her freshman year of college, as she has always had a passion for the nursing field. She said an officer at her college orientation influenced her decision toward a medical military career, where she will have more options with getting involved in emergency and critical patient care.

Farquhar said the most important aspect of her experience at LRMC has been the opportunity to interact with every branch of the military and observe everyone working together, along with the chance to hear the different experiences, opinions and influences of the combined medical and military personnel.

Farquhar said she has assisted during births, something she would not have the opportunity to do during nursing school.

Farquhar also said being in Germany has been extremely valuable to her experience because she has been able to immerse herself in the culture of another country and incorporate that knowledge into her patient care.

Samantha Wilhelm, a junior at the University of Memphis, was assigned to the ICU. Wilhelm comes from a long line of military personnel and described her family as her main influence when getting into the military medical field.

Wilhelm said her experience at LRMC has been incredible and somewhat indescribable. She has participated in a lot of hands on work with critical care patients and will take home knowledge of clinical skills she exercised during the program and apply them during her duration of nursing school.

Wilhelm, with the supervision of her preceptor, was given the opportunity to continuously work hands on and practice skills such as implementing IVs and performing critical assessments. She said she noticed an immense difference between military and civilian hospitals in the aspect of all the staff knowing their roles, but still being able to produce mass amounts of information to the cadets in different areas.

Wilhelm said the most valuable and memorable part of this program has been the time she has gotten to work with the wounded warriors and their families. She said she is thankful she was given the chance to extend her experience and work with such a knowledgeable and encouraging staff.

Anna Lamb, a senior at Grand Canyon University, was assigned to the pediatric clinic.  She said she has always had a passion to serve and admires the intimacy a nurse shares with their patients. She said the CNA course she was involved in solidified her desire to enter the nursing field.

Coming from a long military family line and being impressed from experiences of former ROTC nurses, Lamb realized taking her passion of medicine and combining it with a career in the military was her goal.

Lamb described LRMC as a teaching hospital, where the staff was always willing to help and share their own experiences. This environment taught her there are never too many questions and there is always room to learn. Lamb said she was challenged with adjusting to the schedule of a nurse and found that every person in the hospital setting has their own way of doing things, and it is important to be flexible in order to accommodate. She said she has most enjoyed the experience of inserting herself in the mixture of military and medicine because she does not receive that experience at school.  During her time in the pediatric clinic, she learned how to care for small children, as she describes they are “new to the world of medicine” and have to be cared for in a different manner than adult patients. She said the most memorable experience for her in Germany was the work she did with the CASF during an out-bound flight to send service members back to the states.

Heather Schniepp, preceptor of the pediatrics department, said NSTP is such a valuable experience for the cadets because it is a very rare opportunity to receive hands on experience during nursing school. She said they are exposed to different types of nursing during their time at LRMC and must use different nursing skills and strategies throughout the process. She describes the difficulty nursing students have to gain a wide variety of experience, but these cadets are able to do so being in Germany. Schniepp said the cadets have great skills and knowledge coming in, but are able to put them to use working at a hospital, especially at one that is mixed with both military and civilian patients.

LRMC is the largest American hospital outside of the U.S. and has recently been verified as a Level III Trauma Center by the American College of Surgeons. LRMC provides medical care for more than 200,000 U.S. military personnel and their families within the European region. LRMC is also the evacuation and treatment facility for all injured U.S. service members and civilians injured downrange, as well as service members from neighboring coalition forces.