Nursing students explore Army for a weekend - MAJ Jack Holdford

     What is it like to be an army nurse?  How are army nurses different from civilian nurses?  These questions were explored by 10 non-ROTC nursing students from Clemson and South Carolina State universities as they recently attended the inaugural "Be an Army Nurse Weekend" at Fort Jackson's Moncrief Army Community Hospital.

     The college students postponed their spring break to spend time with Army nurses and to explore the opportunities, too.

     The weekend program included "Army nurse training."  The nursing students shadowed Army nurses in clinical areas, spent one-on one time with Army nurses, ate in the dining facilities with Army nurses and learned that Army nursing is very similar to civilian nursing. 

      According to one student, "It seems like Army nurses just see so much ore in a shorter amount of time: I mean, other than that, they are still nurses."

In addition to having clinical experiences, the nursing students saw other dimensions of Army nursing by watching the documentary, "Baghdad ER," attending a presentation on a humanitarian mission to post-earthquake Pakistan and spending a few hours at the Team Development Course.

Maj. Gen. Gale Pollock, Chief of the Army Nurse Corps, said she believes that every nurse is a recruiter.  Programs like Moncrief Army Community Hospital's "Be an Army nurse Weekend" give future nurses a taste of Army Nursing and allow them to see the opportunities available to today's Army nurse.

- As published in "The Fort Jackson Leader" on Thursday April 10, 2008