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The Dog Tag Diva · Military Broadcast Radio | MBR Talk

0:28
of. Good evening everyone.
0:36
Happy Tuesday. It's 7:00 and it's dog tag diva
0:40
time. Hope everybody's having a good
0:42
week so far. May is Mental Health awareness
0:47
month, it is Military appreciation month, and today is
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Nurses Day. Happy Nurses Day to all my
0:56
civilian and military nurses out there, active and retired.
1:03
God bless you if you're retired. I'm so jealous.
1:06
How much longer do I have to retirement?
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I'm 49, so I got probably about, you know, 11 to 12 years to go.
1:14
Hoping I can hang on that long. Anyway, yes, Nurses Day starts
1:18
today. Hospitals around the country are
1:20
celebrating Nurses Week, and I thought in honor of Nurses Day
1:25
and Nurses Week, I would spend a little time this evening talking
1:29
about my military and civilian nursing career.
1:34
I've talked about my military background a little bit.
1:37
I've talked about my deployment in the past, but I thought
1:41
tonight might be a great time to show some pictures of my career
1:47
and kind of talk about what it's like to be a military nurse and
1:50
a civilian nurse. So how did I go from baby nurse?
1:58
That is not me. It's, you know, an AI version of
2:01
me. I'm not a big fan of AI, gonna
2:04
be totally honest. But, you know, when I was in
2:07
nursing school in the mid 90s, we didn't have camera phones and
2:11
we didn't carry our cameras around with us.
2:13
So there's really no pictures of me as a student nurse, as a, you
2:21
know, even in early in my career and as a nurse, there's
2:25
literally only one picture of me as a nurse.
2:27
And it it is in this slide, it's later on from my deployment.
2:31
But so this is a is version of me as a young nurse.
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I mean, it's close. I wish I had a picture of myself
2:40
in my nursing school uniform in the seersucker blue and white
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dress with the white pantyhose and the white shoes.
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And then we had a shirt version of that, a top.
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It actually zippered in the back.
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And I'm looking back, I'm not sure how we zipped ourselves up
2:58
into that thing, 'cause the dress and the top zipped in the
3:01
back. We wore white pants and white
3:03
shoes and our hair had to be up in a bun and off our collar.
3:07
And yeah, it was a college. It was good times.
3:11
Nursing school was good times. I'm totally lying.
3:14
It was stressful and awful, let's be honest.
3:18
Stressful and awful for sure. Very long.
3:20
Four years to get that bachelor's degree.
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It's one of the hardest degrees. I believe it's in the Guinness
3:25
Book of Records, or if it isn't any more, it used to be.
3:28
It's one of the hardest degrees to obtain.
3:32
So how did I go from baby nurse, young nurse to young Lieutenant
3:40
junior grade in this picture here?
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Gosh, it seems like a lifetime ago and to currently where I am
3:48
now and there we go to commander in the in the Navy.
3:54
Gosh, I still can't believe I even was able to attain that
3:58
attain that. It was a long time coming, but
4:01
so I figured tonight I will talk about similarities and
4:04
differences between military nursing and civilian nursing,
4:09
you know, the unique challenges and rewards of both sides of the
4:12
coin and talk about pathways, training requirements, career
4:16
progression, opportunities that we have available.
4:22
So I wanted to be a nurse from the time that I was 12 years
4:27
old. When people will ask, you know,
4:29
what did you want to be when you were a kid?
4:34
I wanted to be a nurse. I mean, when I was really
4:37
little, I wanted to be, you know, a triple threat.
4:39
I wanted to be a singer and a model and an actress.
4:41
And that didn't last long. I decided that I wanted to be a
4:45
nurse, and it's all I ever wanted to be.
4:48
So 1994 I entered Desales University.
4:56
At the time I was Allentown College.
4:57
Now it's the Sales University. It changed many years ago, but
5:01
so I entered college with and with the intent of earning my
5:05
bachelor's degree in nursing. Four years of trials and
5:09
tribulations and tears and drama.
5:12
I graduated in 1998 with my bachelor's degree in nursing and
5:16
I started out at Hahnemann University Hospital in
5:18
Philadelphia. May they rest in peace.
5:20
They closed down, I believe, about a year before the pandemic
5:25
and what what a shame. But yeah, large 48 bed surgical
5:32
telemetry floor. It was really kind of a.
5:35
Hodgepodge. Of, of medicine and a really,
5:39
really challenging environment to work in as a new nurse.
5:43
Late 90s, we were still kind of nurses were eating their young
5:47
quote, UN quote. So it was really challenging
5:50
time, not great mentoring. I got some support, but it was a
5:55
really challenging environment for me.
5:59
And about about a little less than a year and a half later, I
6:02
jumped ship and I went to Children's Hospital Philadelphia
6:05
to work in the pediatric intensive care unit and really
6:08
kind of fell in love with critical care and Pediatrics
6:12
when I was in college. I never thought I was would wind
6:14
up in Pediatrics. It was never a thought in my
6:16
mind, but I just fell in love with critical care and
6:20
Pediatrics and I have spent the bulk of my career in Pediatrics,
6:24
to be very honest in many in many facets.
6:28
I've done home care, which includes school nursing and
6:31
taking kids to school, being a private duty nurse and doing
6:36
transports for kids who in in the custody of the Department of
6:40
Children and Family Services. God, I've been a nursing
6:43
instructor clinically and and didactic.
6:46
And again, home care was one of those fields that I never
6:51
thought that I would wind up in because I hated it in college.
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And once I wound up with Bayada Home Health Care doing private
6:59
duty, I really enjoyed it and I really loved being with the
7:03
kids. I really loved substitute school
7:05
nursing. That was really fun and they
7:08
other they've all got pros and cons, right?
7:10
Elementary school, middle school, high school.
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I love the I love the elementary school kids.
7:14
They always come down with a chaperone and it's really just
7:16
hilarious. I enjoyed them.
7:18
I enjoyed all of it and I loved being with Bay at Home
7:21
Healthcare. I am missing them tremendously
7:25
since I moved down here in Florida where I am, there's just
7:28
no office near me. But they are a great
7:31
organization. And Mark Bayard himself is a
7:34
Navy man. And they were very supportive of
7:36
my military career. And so that's for that.
7:39
They, they, they get a shout out from me for being really
7:42
supportive of my time in service.
7:46
So what happened? Well, the I do have a family
7:51
history of military service. My grandfather, my dad's father,
7:55
was in the Navy on a destroyer the US has stocked in during
7:59
World War 2 and my great uncle Arthur and Artie as we called
8:03
him, and my Uncle Nevio, they both served in World War 2 as
8:07
well. My Uncle Artie was in the Army
8:09
and Uncle Nevio was in the Air Force, so the family history was
8:13
there. And my dad's brother, Uncle
8:15
Mark, served in the Air Force for many years active duty, and
8:19
then transitioned to Air National Guard and retired
8:22
several years ago as a Lieutenant Colonel.
8:24
But the family history was there and I felt compelled to serve my
8:29
country and be a part of something bigger than myself.
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Nursing wise. I had been a nurse at this point
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for 11-12 years by the time I joined the service.
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I was 35 and I figured it was now or never I needed to do this
8:45
and just really wanted to serve my country and do something
8:48
different in nursing and put myself out there and carry on
8:52
the family tradition to be totally honest.
8:54
So I really am proud of my being the first woman in my family to
9:01
serve so that I I take great pride and honor and then I carry
9:07
that with me and realizing that I, you know, other young girls
9:10
could be looking up to me and watching me.
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So don't be afraid to take risks and do the hard things and which
9:17
I've never been. And joining the service was no
9:19
different, especially at 35, to be very honest.
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And, you know, so what's similar between military nurses and
9:30
civilian nurses? Well, you need a bachelor's
9:32
degree to join the service as a nurse corps officer.
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The Army, Air Force and Navy have nurse corps officers.
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The Coast Guard and the Marines do not.
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So, you know, when it came time for me to join, I just kind of
9:48
felt compelled to join the Navy and talk to a recruiter.
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And I think the entire process from start to finish from me
9:55
took about six months. And I was commissioned into the
9:59
Navy in December 2010 on the USS New Jersey.
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And I started drilling I believe two months after that, February
10:07
2011 is when I started drilling. And because I came in with 12
10:12
years of having a degree, I entered as a Lieutenant junior
10:16
grade. And I showed that picture to you
10:18
and I went to officer training school and at the time reservist
10:23
did two weeks of officer school. Now they do 5 weeks.
10:26
They changed that, I believe, 3:00-ish years ago, give or
10:31
take. I'm not 100% sure on that, but
10:37
so I went to Newport, RI for two weeks and you know, if you've
10:40
never been to officer school, it is learning military history and
10:44
tradition, Navy customs, how to wear the uniform, all those
10:48
things getting up at they woke us up at 4:30 every morning and
10:52
we PT Ed every morning. I went in October and Rhode
10:55
Island in October is cold and it's right on that base is right
10:58
on the water. So it was chilly, you know,
11:01
those first couple days I was kind of, you know, checking
11:04
myself. What did I get myself into?
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But after the first week, I kind of settled in and learned a lot,
11:11
made some great friends and carried on from there.
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And I have just not looked back. I have no regrets of my time.
11:19
So skill wise, yes, nurses and military and civilian, we're
11:22
doing assessments, we are doing wound care, we're documenting
11:27
progress. We are, you know, doing
11:30
medications, strips, ventilators, depending on what
11:33
your specialty is, OR PICU, NICU, Med surg, labor and
11:38
delivery, all the skills and all the specialties, they're all
11:42
there and they are all the same. We need a, you know, you need
11:44
your N clacks, we need your pastor Board of Nursing
11:47
certification exam. I have been a nurse now for 27
11:53
going on 28 years and that test still traumatizes me.
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And I don't, I don't have any, you know, nowadays the test is,
12:02
I think is harder. So I don't have, I'm not jealous
12:07
of the, the ladies and gentlemen today that are taking the NCLEX.
12:11
But so yes, we all need the same skills.
12:14
We still need the same programs and and licensing.
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If you know a youngster, middle school high schooler who was
12:21
thinking about going into the military and they're also
12:24
thinking about going into nursing let and they have ROTC
12:28
at their school, please get them involved because that counts
12:31
towards your time. I wish I had known that.
12:34
I wish there was that opportunity I would have.
12:36
I think I might have at least entertained, entertained the
12:40
idea and professional ethics. We military civilian nurse and
12:45
we all have to adhere to a code of ethics that we have to
12:48
follow. What's additional for the
12:51
military? Well, we have to follow the
12:53
Uniform Code of Military Justice.
12:55
We are bound by that. In addition to that, in the
12:59
civilian side, I know I'm licensed in Florida.
13:02
Like I said, I used to live in New Jersey.
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So I if I lived in New Jersey and when I worked in
13:06
Pennsylvania, I had to be licensed in New Jersey and
13:09
Pennsylvania. So that's one big difference
13:12
between military and civilian nursing.
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Civilian nurses need to be licensed in every state that
13:17
they want to work in. In the Navy, I am.
13:20
I came in with a nursing license and when I go away to my 2, two
13:23
weeks, I go to Virginia. I've been to Virginia, I've been
13:26
to Maryland, I've been in California.
13:28
My license is universal in the service, so I don't have to
13:31
change or apply for or get anything extra.
13:36
Extra training, Yes, absolutely. We need HIPAA training.
13:38
That's the Health Information Portability and Accountability
13:41
Act. I'm sure everybody is well aware
13:44
of what HIPAA is. So yes, that's additional.
13:48
Obviously military training, mandatory training.
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I also have mandatory competencies that I have to do
13:54
in the civilian side as well. So yeah, so there's some things
13:59
that don't change or some things are extra.
14:02
But yes, I enjoy the the things that I have done over the years.
14:12
This picture is from me in Afghanistan.
14:16
This was taken during nurses week.
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It is literally the only picture of myself practicing in a
14:24
hospital as a nurse. I do wish I had more pictures of
14:29
my time prior to. What is different about military
14:37
and civilian nursing? Well, first of all, the work
14:40
environment. Civilian nurses are in clinics,
14:43
they're in hospitals, they are in in home care, they're in
14:47
schools. Military nurses were on bases.
14:51
We are in field hospitals. We are in deployment zones, Navy
14:55
wide right now. They are deployments to hijack.
15:00
Hi, Brad. Thanks for listening in for
15:03
especially in the Grenadines now I'm jealous.
15:08
So yes, military nurses we deploy and Navy nurses are in
15:12
Guantanamo Bay, Cuma, Gitmo right now.
15:15
For you any civilians who are listening in, we Guantanamo, we
15:18
call that Gitmo. And I believe there are some
15:21
people around scattered about. But right now the big location
15:26
is in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. And you know what, We are going
15:31
to go ahead and we are going to go take our first commercial
15:35
break. And when I come back, I'm going
15:36
to talk more about what it's like to be a Navy nurse and and
15:40
a civilian nurse. All right.
20:25
So before the break, we were talking about the differences in
20:28
work environment between military nurses and civilian
20:32
nurses. And one of the things with
20:37
regards to the civilian nurses is that the work environment of
20:39
a civilian nurse is typically pretty predictable and stable,
20:42
right, 'cause we're in clinics, nursing homes, schools,
20:44
hospitals, etcetera. When it comes to the military
20:47
nurses, you know, it could be unpredictable, it could be
20:50
austere, it could be combat conditions.
20:53
So that's definitely one major difference.
20:59
Where have I been? Some of the environments I've
21:01
been in, like I said, I've been in San Diego Naval Hospital,
21:04
also called Balboa. I was at Portsmouth Naval
21:06
Hospital. I was at Walter Reed National
21:09
Military Medical Center. That's actually been my favorite
21:13
place to work. Prior to deploying, I received
21:18
training at La Trauma Training Center in Los Angeles, CA.
21:21
That was excellent training that I really, really loved and
21:25
enjoyed. I also had the opportunity to to
21:29
go to the commissioning of the USS Lena Sutcliffe Higbee in Key
21:35
West in May of 2023, and that was a unique opportunity for me.
21:40
I had never been to the commissioning of a ship before.
21:43
I've actually been in the Navy for 14 years now and I have not
21:45
been on a ship yet, so I am hoping to get on a ship before
21:50
my time is up in the service. But this particular instance was
21:55
really quite amazing of an opportunity for me.
21:59
I was the assistant editor for the Navy Nurse Corps newsletter,
22:02
and because the ship was being named after a Navy nurse, I
22:07
asked my editor and our advisor if we could go to down there and
22:13
get orders to go down there and cover the story and then write
22:16
an article about it for the Nurse Court newsletter.
22:18
And we were approved. And what a really unique,
22:21
amazing experience to get to meet lots of other Navy nurses,
22:25
retired and current, and see some old friends, which was
22:29
really great as well. And one of the things that I was
22:33
able to do while I was down there was network.
22:37
And I met several former Navy nurses, several of whom had
22:41
served on ships during Vietnam. And that's this picture here.
22:46
This woman served during Vietnam and was just amazing to talk to
22:51
and hear her story of serving during that time.
22:56
And one of the things that I learned that I did not know was
23:01
that we knew that the men who served in Vietnam were not
23:04
treated well, but I did not know that the women who served during
23:09
Vietnam were treated just as badly.
23:12
And that really kind of broke my heart when I heard that, because
23:15
here we have all these women. Mind you, all the women who
23:18
served during Vietnam were volunteers, many of whom were
23:21
nurses. And they were treated poorly
23:24
simply because they just wanted to serve their country and do
23:27
the right thing and take care of our servicemen.
23:30
And they were treated just as badly as the men.
23:32
And that really, like I said, broke my heart 'cause I, I did
23:36
not know that. So if you come across a Vietnam
23:39
veteran, always give them respect and, and support them
23:43
and particularly the women. And I think that's a shame
23:45
because a lot of them have some really great stories that we can
23:48
learn from. And 'cause we, you know, that's
23:50
part of our nursing history, our Navy history as well.
23:53
And I hope that more of them find the strength and courage to
23:57
come forward and tell their stories because they're, they're
24:00
important and they need to be heard.
24:02
And people like myself and they paved the way for nurses like
24:05
myself and all the ones who have come since then.
24:08
So if there are any Vietnam nurses listening, Army, Navy,
24:13
please come forward and tell us your story.
24:15
Come on my podcast. I'd love to give you a platform
24:18
to talk about your time and service.
24:20
There are actually seven women's names on the Vietnam Memorial
24:26
Wall and they are all nurses who were killed in Vietnam as a
24:30
results of the war that was going that was going on.
24:37
So yeah, I was. I honestly that when I found out
24:40
the level of, you know, the fear that they still carry to this
24:45
day all these years later after Vietnam and their discomfort
24:49
we're talking about their story really just makes me pause and
24:54
just want to hug them and say thank you.
24:56
Not only thank you for serving, but please, please find the
24:59
courage to tell your story because it's really important
25:02
and and that they need to be heard.
25:05
Medical training that we have to do, you know, hot.
25:09
One of the things we have to do with military nursing is hot on
25:12
load and off loads when we're getting patients on and off the
25:15
Blackhawk. I don't think people really
25:18
understand the power of of the Blackhawk and how important it
25:23
is to know how to get on and off one of these things safely.
25:28
So really important training. The focus these last several
25:32
years has been joint force training to this training
25:35
evolution that I did most recently in March was a joint
25:38
effort between the Army, the Navy and the Air Force.
25:41
And we even had the Coast Guard involved a little bit as well.
25:44
And the plan is to make the exercise bigger next year and
25:47
involve the Coast Guard even more.
25:49
So really excellent to be able to practice and off a helicopter
25:53
with it being on, but getting patients on and off,
25:55
transferring them, transferring them to the next level of care,
25:59
from scene to next level, and then getting them on AC130 to an
26:03
even higher level of care. So there's a lot of great
26:05
training that's going on right now in the military as we
26:07
prepare for a potential. Conflict with the near.
26:10
Peer and one of the things that we've done in the Navy is
26:14
restructure who was attached to whom and how we're going to be
26:17
deploying. And that also means lots more
26:21
training so that we are prepared for whatever gets thrown at us.
26:26
What kind of patients are we taking care of?
26:28
Great question, glad you asked. In the civilian sector, we're,
26:32
you know, specializing in all areas, medical, surgical areas,
26:37
pediatric. Intensive.
26:38
Care, neonatal intensive care, adult intensive care, operating
26:42
room, recovery room. We're dealing with a wide
26:45
variety of a population. We're seeing a lot of chronic
26:48
conditions. A lot.
26:50
Of. Different specialties.
26:55
Chronic care across the across the age continuum is what is the
27:00
words that I'm trying to find tonight.
27:02
From a military standpoint, we're primarily going to be
27:05
caring for service members, caring for veterans, caring for
27:10
the family members of said service members.
27:14
Treating trauma battlefield. Injuries, especially if we're in
27:17
combat zones and in those austere environments, we're
27:19
gonna be treating all kinds of injuries, PTSD and everything
27:23
that comes along with serving. You know, men and women in the
27:27
service get into car accidents, they get ill, they get cancer.
27:31
We so we treat all of those things as well.
27:35
Where are we doing those things? Well, we're doing them on
27:37
military bases, we're doing them at the the VA, we are doing them
27:41
in combat zones, we are doing them in field hospitals, we are
27:45
doing them on the ships, the United.
27:47
States Navy has. Two hospital ships, one on the
27:50
West Coast, which is the Mercy, and one on the East Coast, which
27:54
is the Comfort. So they deploy.
27:57
Around the world, in unstable or hazardous environments and
28:01
humanitarian missions and emergency response, the comfort
28:05
was. Deployed.
28:06
During the major earthquake that Haiti experienced and the Mercy
28:10
and the Comfort were both deployed during the COVID-19
28:14
pandemic. What other?
28:18
Additional training do we do in the military?
28:23
We do lots because we need to be prepared for whatever
28:26
environment we may be potentially caring for patients
28:30
in a conflict zone and that includes cold weather training.
28:33
I did this but one time. I am not a cold weather person.
28:37
Full disclosure, I the first night we slept out in tents in
28:41
the snow and the next morning my toes were so cold even after
28:45
being inside for half an hour that they told me I was not
28:48
allowed to sleep in the tent in the snow the next night and I
28:51
had to actually stay in the in the shed which.
28:55
Really wasn't. Any I mean, it was warm, but it
28:58
was noisy and uncomfortable. And so, yeah, but we, and
29:02
nonetheless we did training in the snow, in the cold, in the
29:06
frozen tundra of the Poconos of Pennsylvania.
29:12
And there's still that training is.
29:14
Still going on in my old unit up at Fort Dix.
29:17
I just was not my cup of tea. I preferred the warm weather
29:20
training with the Cape May Beach Patrol and the Coast Guard.
29:23
That was much better. You know, in the military, those
29:26
of you who are listening are in the military.
29:27
You know, we have a very clear chain of command.
29:30
We have a very rigid hierarchy. We have military ranks and we
29:33
have to follow those. We report to commanding
29:37
officers. So we've got all of our medical
29:40
training that we need to function as nurses, in addition
29:43
to all the military training that we need.
29:47
As well and need to be. Prepared for anything in extreme
29:49
conditions as opposed to my civilian counterparts in the
29:54
nursing world, we're answering to hospital administration.
29:58
Depending on how big your hospital is, you may or may not
30:00
see administrators. My hospital at Johns Hopkins All
30:03
Children's, all of the administrators make rounds.
30:06
They are very visible. They hold town halls frequently.
30:09
So they are definitely accessible and something that I
30:13
believe is truly important. To truly be a leader, you have
30:16
to be visible. You can't lead from the back,
30:18
you have to lead from the front. You have to have open door
30:20
policies and you have to be visible.
30:21
Otherwise it just simply doesn't work.
30:25
I have no. Tolerance or patience for people
30:28
who jump chain of command. If you have a problem with me,
30:31
please come and talk to me. I would appreciate that much
30:34
better. We are all adults.
30:36
Please come and talk to me. I don't.
30:40
If we can't solve the. Issue, then I would say yes, we
30:44
should take it up the chain, but definitely don't jump around.
30:49
You have an issue with me, please come and talk to me.
30:51
Otherwise we're going to have a problem.
30:53
It is the reason why I left my last hospital before I came to
30:56
Johns Hopkins because somebody had a question about something I
31:00
was doing and instead of coming to me, went right to the chief
31:03
nursing officer, who then went to my boss.
31:05
And then I heard about it and I just kind of said to my boss,
31:08
honestly, this is not the right environment for me.
31:10
I don't function like this. I don't work like this.
31:12
And I will be looking for a new job because I.
31:15
Respect and. Understand the chain of command.
31:18
It's that important to me. So we were go.
31:21
We'll be talking more about military and civilian nursing
31:23
when we come back from the break.
34:36
And we're back before. The break, we were talking about
34:39
the training responsibilities between military nurses and
34:44
civilian nurses and to continue on with that piece of things,
34:49
you know, when it comes to lifestyle and commitment and
34:52
challenges, civilian nurses are going to have more control over
34:57
their location and their schedule as military nurses,
35:00
whether you're reservist or active duty, that becomes much
35:05
more restrictive because you have to follow your protocols.
35:07
You have to follow your chain of command.
35:09
There has to be a billet available.
35:12
You know, active duty nurses are changing their billets every two
35:15
to three years. Not so much the case as a
35:18
civilian nurse, right? You could get a job in a
35:20
hospital in a in a position and just stay there forever.
35:24
You can get a job in a hospital and.
35:26
Transfer around. To different departments based
35:28
on what you know, your, your, your preferences in case are.
35:32
That's kind of my style. I love to be able to move around
35:35
and do different things. I love the opportunities that
35:38
the civilian nurses afford me, but I also love opportunities
35:41
that the Navy offers as well. But you know there in the
35:46
civilian side you have shift work, patient load.
35:50
Depending on what state you live in there, there may not be
35:53
standard staffing ratios. So burnout is real.
35:57
Shift work is hard rotating shifts.
36:00
We're going to have that in the. Military as well, but you also
36:03
going to add deployments in there that are a possibility and
36:06
how does that impact your family?
36:08
You know, I was deployed to Afghanistan to be a nurse in the
36:12
Role Three combat hospital in 2015.
36:15
My son was 12 at the time. And I had to make arrangements
36:19
to make sure that, you know, my ex-husband and my, you know, my
36:22
parents were ready to jump in and help him and take care of
36:26
him while I was away. But military nursing, there's
36:29
that opportunity. There is that opportunity and
36:31
possibility that you're going to be deployed.
36:36
To you know. Could be Guantanamo Bay, could
36:38
be, you know, at the time we were in Iraq and Afghanistan and
36:43
Bahrain and. Africa.
36:47
Djibouti, Africa, you could be deployed somewhere stateside,
36:50
there could be humanitarian crisis.
36:52
So the opportunity to be away from home is significantly
36:56
greater, obviously if you're in the surface as opposed to if you
36:59
are. A a civilian nurse.
37:03
So active duty's a commitment. Reservists are a commitment.
37:05
In the Navy, it's one week and a month and two weeks a year.
37:08
And when I first got in as a Lieutenant, junior grade and a
37:11
young Lieutenant, that was pretty much the routine.
37:14
But the higher in rank you go, the more responsibility you take
37:17
on and the more you're doing things at home.
37:19
So one week and a month and two weeks a year turns into much
37:23
more than that and then especially.
37:26
If you add. Into it a deployment or
37:28
opportunities to go on medical missions as well.
37:32
So even take going active duty for a period of time, you know,
37:36
go to Guam, Okinawa, there's lots of opportunity out there in
37:41
the, in the military and training if you want to, you
37:44
know, I have found that the mentoring in the Navy has been
37:49
as different than what I experienced in the civilian side
37:53
of nursing. No, we train to be prepared in
37:56
the military for anything and everything.
37:59
You know, we do drills and we set up the field hospitals and
38:03
field hospitals are designed to operate like any other hospital,
38:07
only they are literally out in the field.
38:09
They run off of generators and we have wards.
38:11
We have the ICU we have OR we have the radiology department
38:15
where we'll have full services of X-ray, CAT scan, MRI and
38:20
everything that we need to function in a field
38:23
environments. If need be, we have our corpsman
38:27
there to help us. Our corpsman are fantastic.
38:29
That is one major difference between military and civilian
38:32
nursing. Civilian side, we may have one
38:35
or two techs on the floor to help us with some basic patient
38:39
care items and military nursing, we've got our corpsman and they
38:43
are fantastic and they can give medications, they can hang
38:46
blood, they can do assessments and documentation and really
38:49
assist us in taking care of our patients.
38:52
Personally, I have a hard time coming back home to the civilian
38:55
side of the house when I've been on active duty for a couple
38:58
weeks because I've got Corman helping me out.
39:00
And it is definitely, it's a definitely a whole new world, a
39:04
different experience. And it makes me think back to
39:07
the days of nursing when we had truly had team nursing, where
39:11
the RNS and the LPNS and the tech all work as a team and took
39:14
care of patients and. It's just a different.
39:17
Time in healthcare right now. You know we.
39:21
Do things and when that we've talked and the field we're in
39:24
the field, right we have we're either in large tents that
39:27
accommodate multiple people or we may be like in a single man
39:30
tent just depending on what exercise are you doing.
39:33
You know, you learn to get comfortable in the field.
39:35
Those of us who have been in the military, we know what it's like
39:38
to be out in the field. And, you know, make sure you
39:40
pack your earplugs and pillowcases and your tarp to put
39:44
on the floor in case the tent floor isn't put down.
39:47
And bring your power cord to hang your stuff because you
39:49
don't want your stuff on the floor.
39:51
Because, you know, critters couldn't like to, you know,
39:53
crawl into your clothes and make your shoes and clothes their
39:56
home. And, you know, no food at the
39:59
tank because food brings mice and mice brings snakes.
40:01
And then we're just, we're all going to have a bad day.
40:03
You know you need the headlamp with the.
40:06
White light and the red light because it makes it easier to
40:08
walk around at night when you have to get out of the tent to
40:10
go use the porta John and it. Definitely.
40:13
Comes in handy when you have the headlamp on when you have to use
40:16
the porta John at night, because you certainly don't want to be
40:18
holding your phone and trying to take care of business in the
40:21
dark. And nobody wants to, you know,
40:23
drop their phone in the porta John because that would be, you
40:25
know, God awful. What?
40:28
Else, you know, civilian nurses. You know, how would you feel if
40:33
you had to pass, you know, a physical fitness test, you know?
40:38
We have to. In the the Navy's fitness test
40:40
is definitely different from the Army and the Marine.
40:43
So every branch is going to be different.
40:45
In the Navy we have to do a mile and a half run and then we have
40:48
to do as many push ups as we can in 2 minutes.
40:51
And they got rid of the sit ups and they've thrown in planks in
40:53
there with the plank as long as we can.
40:55
And obviously your score is based on your age and how well
40:59
you did. But you know, imagine civilian
41:01
nurses if we said to them, hey, by the way, you have to pass a
41:04
physical fitness test in order to be able to continue to do
41:08
your job. And oh, by the way, it goes on
41:10
your evaluation, right? And the civilian side, you
41:14
advance if you want to. And if you have an advanced
41:18
degree, you know in the Navy you advance based.
41:21
On. Your fit reps and time and rank
41:24
right and we have to fill out these fit reps that are.
41:27
Based. On, you know, filled out
41:29
annually when you're, you know, per your rank and then you want
41:34
to score well and you want to be above the average, you want to
41:37
be moving towards the right. You know that's not how things
41:40
work. The civilian side of the.
41:43
House have a master's degree? Don't have a master's degree.
41:46
What you choose to do just depends on whether or not you
41:49
want to. Further.
41:52
Your education, it's there in the Navy as well.
41:57
But if you want. To you will not advance in rank
42:00
unless you were doing. Multiple trainings and.
42:04
Multiple opportunities for collateral duties and, and
42:07
leadership and all of that stuff is exceedingly important.
42:12
You know, I myself, you know, I didn't want to stay in one place
42:16
for too long. So I actually went greenside.
42:19
That's what we call in the Navy. When you go, go join a Marine
42:21
unit. I went greenside for a couple
42:23
years and I will be very honest, I loved my time with the
42:26
Marines, God bless their little hearts.
42:29
But I really enjoyed my time. Learned a lot.
42:32
Yes, a lot of time out in the field rocking.
42:36
Learn the hard way to pack your stuff in.
42:40
Ziploc bags. Or waterproof bags because you
42:42
could be out in the field and it starts raining and now all your
42:46
stuff is wet. And I had a very rough minimal
42:50
sleep night one night after this rock because it rained while we
42:54
were rocking and my stuff was wet and I.
42:58
Changed out of a wet. Uniform into damp short and
43:01
T-shirts and just didn't sleep well because I was damp and you
43:05
know things smelled because they were wet and.
43:10
But you know what? I.
43:11
Learned next time I'm out in the field, pack all your stuff in
43:14
zip lock bags and put everything in a big, you know, line that
43:17
bag with a trash bag 1st and then individually wrap
43:20
everything in the zip lock because that's how we keep
43:22
everything dry, right guys? We live and learn, we adapt and
43:24
overcome and we make it work, you know?
43:29
So what happens? When you get deployed.
43:33
Well, you have training again, There's a advanced training.
43:36
We don't have these things in the civilian side, but in the
43:39
military side, yeah, we have to do things that are non medical
43:41
to be prepared to be able to provide care for our service men
43:46
and women when we get deployed into austere environments.
43:49
That includes getting tested and fitted for our gas mask.
43:53
If you're claustrophobic, this is a nightmare like myself,
43:57
including the Humvee rollover. I swear the Navy's trying to
44:00
cure my claustrophobia because they keep doing things like this
44:03
to me. So there.
44:05
Was the gas mask training, so non medical stuff, but there was
44:09
a lot of medical training as well, which was really cool.
44:12
I got to go as I mentioned to LA County for some medical training
44:16
and included in that training was time in the burn IC which
44:19
was really eye opening and really interesting and I
44:21
enjoyed. And they also trained us to
44:24
scrub and circulate in the operating room.
44:27
Now by the time I deployed I had been a nurse well over 1314
44:30
years and was pretty comfy but. This.
44:34
Training for a whole new world of nursing made me feel like a
44:39
brand new baby nurse all over again.
44:41
And thank God for my corpsman who was a scrub tech in the OR
44:45
and he kind of talked me through everything and made this a great
44:48
experience for me. Never had to actually go scrub
44:51
into the OR, but this was a really great opportunity for me
44:55
to really push myself outside my comfort zone and to learn
44:58
something new and have an appreciation for a whole
45:01
different world of nursing. I do remember a majority of the
45:06
instruments. I probably could fudge it if I
45:09
had to. Did not have to when I was
45:11
deployed in that environment though.
45:15
Civilian nurses. We get medical training, you
45:17
know, military nurses and civilian nurses.
45:19
We will do what's called TNCC trauma nurse core course, but we
45:23
will also. Do in the.
45:25
Military, of course, called T Triple C Tactical combat
45:28
casualty care. Basically getting the patient
45:31
in, you know, wild that you're under fire and get them off the
45:35
axe, stabilize them and get them to more definitive care.
45:39
So non military, I mean, non medical training, I should say,
45:43
when you're deploying, we got to go through your combat training,
45:46
all right. And those who are not medical
45:49
and who are, you know, infantry and Special forces and Seals and
45:56
all those kinds of combatants, you know, this training.
45:59
But yes, medical. Folks have to.
46:01
Go through this combat training as well.
46:04
I'm going to be honest, I rather enjoyed my time out in the field
46:08
learning how to kick in doors and being out on the range and
46:12
shooting pistols and rifles. And so I enjoyed it.
46:16
I learned a lot from it. I have, I have no complaints
46:19
about it. One of the things that I enjoy
46:22
about the military and being a nurse in the Navy is the
46:27
additional medical training that I would get and I'm exposed to
46:30
that I wouldn't get as a civilian.
46:32
And one of those things is training with the Coast Guard
46:35
and the beach patrol and learning how to do water rescues
46:38
and things of that. Nature.
46:40
So I've gotten a lot of opportunities that I would not
46:43
have gotten in the civilian side.
46:45
I have skills as a Navy nurse that I would not do as a
46:50
civilian nurse. So as a military nurse, I know
46:52
how to put in tracheostomies, you know, Airways here in the
46:55
neck for you non medical folks listening, sutures, intubations,
46:59
different kinds of medical equipment.
47:01
So I've really gotten some really interesting and unique
47:04
opportunities I as. Mentioned.
47:07
Earlier, I live in Florida now in Clearwater and I drill out of
47:11
Orlando, FL and my unit has a relationship with the Run Disney
47:19
folks and we have had the opportunity for the last two
47:22
years to be able to provide medical support to the Run
47:26
Disney races. Really unique opportunity to be
47:30
able to provide medical support in a whole different
47:34
environment, rapid pace medicine and really appreciate the
47:40
opportunity to be able to serve alongside this great medical
47:44
crew that provides support to all the runners at the Run
47:48
Disney races. Jenna and Chris and Diane are
47:51
amazing and I really enjoy my time over there and it's been
47:57
amazing to be able to be at Disney in the middle of the
48:01
night before the park opens to see.
48:05
The experience. Of, you know, Epcot in the
48:08
middle of the night. It is an early start ladies and
48:11
gentlemen to provide medical support and even run the race.
48:13
So Medical Run Disney, we are there about zero, 300-0330 so
48:19
that we can be in our places and ready to go at 4:30 AM because
48:24
the run starts at 5:00 AM. If you were not aware of that,
48:28
those Run Disney races are an early start and all the runners
48:32
even have to be there by 3:30, four, 4:00 AM because they close
48:36
off the roads for safety, particularly for, you know, the
48:39
10 and the half and the full marathon.
48:41
They're running in between the parks and they're out on the
48:44
road. So safety is of utmost
48:46
importance and it is really important that the medical
48:50
people are there to provide support to more than 10,000
48:54
runners per race. So just side notes on there if
48:57
you were not aware, run. Disney races are huge.
49:01
And I am really honored to be able to be a part of of that
49:06
that opportunity for them. What else, what else?
49:12
You know, again, civilian nurses, we progress if we want
49:15
to, in leadership. Military nurses, we are
49:20
encouraged and almost enforced to advance our careers via
49:24
leadership and any and all opportunities that are afforded
49:28
to us. Official leadership
49:30
opportunities, mentoring the corpsman, mentoring junior
49:34
sailors, new sailors, and really just being supported through
49:40
courses in leadership as well. And a lot of these courses are
49:45
also based upon rank, so you'll take some as a junior officer or
49:48
you'll take some as a senior officer.
49:50
There's all kind of leadership opportunities in the military
49:53
that we really aren't afforded in the civilian sector, and I
49:56
really wish that we were. Even if civilian nurses didn't
50:00
want to take an official leadership role, I still think
50:03
we should be offering leadership courses to our civilian nurses
50:06
so that they can have an awareness of being a leader in
50:10
their not only in the hospital but out in their community as
50:14
well. Well, and I just realized I
50:17
have. A typo.
50:18
It's a good thing you guys can't see that because it's really not
50:21
important at this point in time. I wish there you know people why
50:25
I have not set up my Google Voice yet.
50:27
Joel and I are working on that. So I could get people to.
50:30
Call in and ask questions. But here I am 14 years into a
50:39
military career and 27 going on 28 years in a nursing career and
50:46
I have no complaints really. You know, look, it's hard
50:53
nursing. Is hard Healthcare is hard A.
50:57
Young paramedic. Was stabbed and killed last week
51:01
in Kansas City. I believe there were several
51:05
nurses that have been attacked in the last couple of months
51:08
around the country by patients. Nurses are being threatened.
51:14
Our first responders, law enforcement, nurses, doctors,
51:19
our healthcare providers. Healthcare has been quite a
51:22
challenge these last many years, particularly since the pandemic.
51:29
And. I wish that I had the answer to
51:34
fix it because it makes it so much harder to take care of our
51:37
patients when people are screaming and yelling at us and
51:39
threatening us. And just recently there was a
51:43
parent that threatened to stab several of the nurses and said
51:46
some really obscene things afterwards.
51:49
Hi MJ, thanks for listening. So B.
51:55
Patient with your. Healthcare workers, if you are
51:58
you or a family member are in the hospital, we are doing our
52:01
very best. I know that everybody is
52:04
understaffed. I feel like that's the theme and
52:07
many. You know, health, not such.
52:12
As healthcare, it's, you know, the service industry, it's ever
52:16
it's. All over the place.
52:16
So if we could all be patient with each other and really
52:19
support each other, that would be helpful.
52:21
I know that everybody is bringing a set of.
52:26
Coping. Mechanisms with.
52:27
Them Some people have more than others and I get that people are
52:31
at their worst when they're sick and it's really hard and
52:33
challenging, but. Coming at your healthcare.
52:36
Workers isn't going to help you and it makes things really hard
52:39
for us when all we're trying to do is just help you get better
52:43
or help you maintain some dignity, especially if you are,
52:47
you know, at the end of your life we want to.
52:50
Make sure that you are comfortable.
52:52
If. I could.
52:53
Say anything right now. I think it's have conversations
52:57
with your family members about what your wishes are.
53:00
I know it's hard and it's easier said than done, right?
53:05
But let your family know what your wishes would be if you
53:09
couldn't make decisions for yourself.
53:11
It's really important to have those conversations with the
53:14
people in your life who might be making those decisions.
53:17
Put it on paper and have a living will and advance
53:20
directive. You know, these are
53:22
conversations that are really important because at the end of
53:25
the day, when you are really critically ill in the ICU and
53:30
the nurses are taking care of you and the doctors are asking
53:34
you, your family members, to make decisions on your behalf.
53:38
I've seen. Family.
53:39
Members yelling at each other at the bedside of a patient.
53:42
And it's really quite awful for us to experience.
53:46
It's hard on everybody. And at the end of the day, the
53:51
patient suffers because they just simply didn't make their
53:55
wishes known. And the nurses who are at the
53:58
bedside with you, we don't want to see you suffer and we want
54:01
you to be pain free and we want you to pass with dignity and so.
54:08
Please if I. Could relay one important
54:12
message tonight it's have the conversations with your loved
54:16
ones about what your wishes are because it's it's.
54:20
Hard for us to. Watch the suffering.
54:22
It's hard for us to watch the struggle and a lot of times we
54:27
have a patient that'll pass away and we have to write a note and
54:34
notify the family if they're not there.
54:35
And if they're there, we help them say goodbye and we take a
54:38
body down to the morgue. And then we have little to no
54:42
time to process what just happened before we're being
54:46
approached with, hey, we need to put a patient in that bed.
54:49
So understand that we we feel the pain, we feel the struggle,
54:54
but we learn to compartmentalize and let it out some other time
54:59
later on. So please take care of each
55:04
other and have these conversations so that your
55:11
family members know what you what your wishes are.
55:17
So and. With that, I am going to and
55:22
with I hope you enjoyed the presentation tonight on the
55:25
differences between military and civilian nursing as we celebrate
55:29
Nurses Day and the rest of this week is Nurses Week.
55:33
If you have a nurse in your life, do something nice for
55:36
them. We always appreciate gifts.
55:38
Gifts are nice, especially if you've asked us for medical
55:41
advice, We would definitely appreciate a small token of your
55:44
gratitude. Always welcome and for the dog
55:48
tag Diva, I am here to remind you to greet each day with
55:52
purpose, passion and tenacity and be kind to each other.
55:57
Ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for tuning in to
56:01
Military Broadcast Radio. As we wrap up today's show, we
56:06
want to remind you that the podcast of today's episode will
56:10
be available right after we go off the air.
56:13
So if you missed any part of the show or want to listen again, be
56:18
sure to check it out. And remember, we're here to
56:23
support and honor our veterans. Your stories and experiences
56:29
matter, and we are committed to giving you a platform to share
56:33
them. That's right, we're here to give
56:37
our veterans a voice. So don't forget to catch the
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