Topics About 'Government Nursing'.

"How much do we have left?" My boss, Angela, stood in front of me with concern bordering on desperation in her eyes. She bit her lower lip unconsciously, tapping the paper in her left hand against her leg. Her anxiety was palpable from where I sat a ...

After I became an RN, I remember looking at the Army website, just musing ... but I saw that I needed a BSN for active duty. I had started an RN-to-BSN program with Chamberlain College of Nursing, but even with only 10 courses required (I had 206 cre...

GAS GAS GAS! Yep, that's right ... this week was the infamous gas chamber. For those of you who don't know what that entails, we were issued a gas mask (item M40), which, like the M16 rifle, is a "sensitive item" that becomes glued to your person whe...

Good times! I was lucky enough to get to fly in a Blackhawk as part of the casualty simulations on Tuesday, which was amazing. Wednesday, I was elected by my cohorts in crime to be a triage nurse at a simulated explosion, so one of the PAs in our pla...

So many levels of bureaucracy -- in-processing to the post, then the hospital. But both are necessary, so I tried to be patient (not one of my strengths, certainly). The first thing we tried to do was to get me logged into APEQS, which is the AMEDD P...

December and the holidays flew by, and it was suddenly the first part of January. The next step in my Army career centered around when I'd hear from the branch manager who would determine my first duty station, as well as when I'd go to the Basic Off...

I was late. My mind locked back onto the road before me, a mess of brake lights glowing in the twilight ahead. I had an hour to get to Baltimore, but first, I had to stop through work. Not in this traffic, I thought, mentally reworking my route north...

I was in Operation Enduring Freedom working out of a small forward operating base right outside the town of Herat, Afghanistan. It was early February, 2005. We received notification that a Blackhawk helicopter was bringing us a four year old girl fro...

I'm kidding, I really wouldn't trade my firstborn for a shower ... but only because I'm not having children! When I last blogged, I was getting ready to take the final exam, and I'm happy to say I passed it easily. I am much more pleased with my 88% ...

We transitioned right into Nurse Track the day after graduation. Tuesday we all wore our ASUs (dress uniforms) because we were scheduled to have a video teleconference with Major General Patricia Horoho, our most excellent Corps Chief, first thing on...

This morning at 0700, the phone woke me from sleep. It was my brother, calling me from Alaska to tell me how proud he was of me for joining the Army. Granted, Alaska is several hours behind Virginia, and he clearly had been up all night, indulging in...

In March I hit my one-year-in mark. Hooray! How are things going, you ask? Overall, not bad. I still work a lot of hours, and it's still probably too much (in others' opinions). The difference is that I have one employer instead of three, as I did in...

PT, PT ... how I love and hate PT! I just completed my semi-annual Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) during the last week of October, and I was very happy to pass with a decent margin and score. I had been working hard on my sit-ups -- my Achilles he...

When I met Army private Jamie Salvedo he was being loaded onto our C17 cargo plane at Joint Base Andrews (near Washington D.C.). It had been nearly two weeks since he was injured and almost killed in Afghanistan. This was the last leg of his journey ...

Almost more than the whole "hurry up and wait" business, the Army is crazy about lines. We stand in line for just about everything: meals at the dining facility (DFAC), getting our FTX (field training exercise) equipment issued at CIF (Central Issue ...

My apologies for failing to blog last week ... it's been non-stop, and I've been stressed and tired. Lots of PT, lots of sit-ups! I will start with the good news: I passed my PT test today! Hooray!! I was so excited after passing my sit-ups that I ju...

During the process of orienting to the post, we had a presentation at the Army Education Center about using our Tuition Assistance (TA) dollars. I listened with interest because I knew I wanted to get started on my MSN as soon as I could. I learned t...

I am speaking fondly to my direct commission brethren (and sistren?) who don't know their ORB from their iPERMS. Some of this will seem obvious to prior service folks, or people who have been in for a while ... as one of the Majors/PAs who works in m...

1. Do not count on getting paid for the first 30 days, although I got paid sooner than that. We started 23 March, and I didn't get paid until 15 April. This was during all the potential government shutdown shenanigans, so pay on 15 April was even ten...

Lots of good things this past week: another formation run without vomiting, which was great. But also our first record (official) PT test, and I'll say right up front that I still didn't pass the sit-ups, darn it! Very frustrating. I did more this ti...

I was a new medic when the Fallujah attacks happened in late 2004. I worked at a family practice clinic that was attached to Landstuhl hospital. The wards at the hospital became so overwhelmed with the injured soldiers, that they had to open up anoth...

Let's see, where were we last ... oh yes, departing for Basic Officer Leadership Course (BOLC). I drove from Virginia to Jackson, Tennessee on the first day. It was a fabulous drive -- lovely weather and a huge playlist on the iPod. I am a machine wh...

Many of the nurses, nurse practitioners, doctors, veterinarians, public health professionals, and psychologists you meet at the Reserve Component Basic Officers' Leadership Course are not fresh from grad school. They are health care professionals wit...

For the latter half of this year I've had the wonderful opportunity of being deployed as the only ER RN with a Forward Surgical Team (FST). One of the interesting things about being with these folks is the "forward" part. That means we're a little fu...