By Rebekah Tilley

This article originally appeared in the College of Nursing Fall 2011 Newsletter and is re-printed here with their permission.

In the ten years since the events of September 11, 2001, the military footprint around the world has vastly expanded touching the careers of many UK College of Nursing alumni and faculty as well as impacting the training of its ROTC undergraduates.

There are a myriad of opportunities for nurses via a military career and the College of Nursing works with military personnel at every stage of their careers to optimize the educational opportunities afforded by being both in the armed services and students in the College of Nursing.

Nursing senior and Army ROTC cadet Jennifer Graehler found nursing and the Army almost at the same time. The Lexington, Ky., native came to UK on a Governor’s School for the Arts scholarship. Originally a math education major, Ms. Graehler switched to pre-nursing because “…it combines both the technical aspect of the sciences with a hands-on, interpersonal approach we get with our patients.”

While coming to that decision, she also was taking an ROTC class for a social science credit and getting up for morning physical training three times a week to “discover what ROTC was all about and whether the Army was the right choice for my career. ”When it became clear that nursing was her calling, Ms. Graehler said that the Army seemed like the perfect fit to make it happen.

The military has a need for BSN-prepared nursing personnel and offers them benefits they do not extend to other ROTC cadets. At UK, the Army and Air Force ROTC programs offer very attractive scholarship packages that in some cases include a full scholarship, including books, room and board. The Army covers the costs of the NCLEX-RN review course and exams, buys their equipment and uniforms, pays their malpractice insurance and immunization fees, and guarantees them a nursing position in the military following graduation.

While in nursing school, the UK ROTC programs work closely with the College of Nursing. “The collaborative relationship between the Army and Air Force ROTC programs originally started because there was a shortage of nurses in the military, and because we’ve been so proactive and taken them under the wing of a dedicated advisor, there has been a significant increase in those coming out of nursing schools,” said ROTC faculty advisor and Assistant Professor Fran Hardin-Fanning, PhD, RN, College of Nursing.

So successful in fact that in 2010, the College of Nursing received the Exceptional Army Nurse ROTC Support Award as one of the top nursing colleges in the country for their efforts in collaborating with the Army ROTC in supporting the education of Army Nursing officers.

Since becoming ROTC faculty advisor more than three years ago, Dr.Hardin-Fanning describes her role as an advocate and liaison for ROTC nursing students as they navigate the time pressures of ROTC and nursing school. She works with them to override their schedules, gives them opportunities to turn their ROTC Nurse Summer Training Program (NSTP) at military hospitals into independent study credits, and stashes candy in their mailboxes on special occasions to sweeten their full schedules.

And the schedule is very full. Ms. Graehler’s typical day finds her out of bed in time for 6 a.m. physical training with her fellow cadets, followed by a day packed with nursing classes, ROTC classes and leadership labs, and then off to the library to study “…until you fall asleep, which is preferably earlier rather than later because it’s up again at 5 a.m. the next day,” described Ms. Graehler.

Her undergraduate schedule has little time built in for football games and parties, but ROTC affords her short-term goals that make the rigorous schedule manageable. With her sights set on traveling internationally for her NSTP, offered to ROTC nursing students following their junior year, she makes a point to keep her GPA high and works hard to max out her OTC physical training tests. All that work paid off when she spent July and August 2011 at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany for her NSTP.

“I worked there providing medical care to soldiers who were transported from Iraq and Afghanistan after being wounded, to be stabilized in Landstuhl,” said Ms. Graehler of her experience. “It was a fantastic opportunity to travel and do something that I love and am passionate about.”

Many other active duty and reserve military personnel take advantage of the benefits offered by their respective branches when it comes to earning their advanced nursing degrees. Retired Commander Brad Briscoe, MSN, RN, APRN, CNS, CEN, U.S. Navy Nurse Corps, initially entered the U.S. Naval Reserve shortly after high school in 1985. He received tuition assistance and GI

Bill benefits while attending nursing school at the University of Louisville. After his undergraduate program, CDR Briscoe went on to active service in 1991. Then, in 2000, the Navy paid his way back to school, at the University of Kentucky where he obtained care nurse practitioner. CDR Briscoe is currently working on his Doctor of Nursing Practice at the College of Nursing and expects to graduate in summer 2013.

While the educational opportunities are great, most military nurses focus on the diversity of experiences afforded them. In the case of Captain Debra Hall, PhD, RN, CCRN, U.S. Navy, director of nursing research, staff development and practice improvement, UK Health Care, it was the desire for a challenge in her nursing career that led her to the military. “I wanted to continue to be a nurse, but I wanted to look at using it in a different context,” explained CAPT Hall. As a Navy reservist, CAPT Hall experienced nursing in the context of operational field exercises in how to handle the aftermath of a natural disaster, led a Navy medical humanitarian trip to South America, and spent the last two weeks of April 2011 familiarizing herself with small arms.

“Not too many nurses do that,” said CAPT Hall.

Currently, CAPT Hall is experiencing nursing in the context of a military operation as she is now on a tour of duty in Afghanistan. This is her first tour after almost 17 years as an officer and reservist.

Many military nurses also are provided learning experiences much earlier in their careers than they would experience in the civilian world. One of Dr. Hardin-Fanning’s ROTC students, who was receiving independent study credits for her NSTP internship, wrote about how she had intubated a patient “…and I thought ‘I’m a registered nurse and I’ve never intubated a patient!’” recalled Dr. Hardin-Fanning.

When Assistant Professor and U.S. Army Reserve Colonel Kathryn Moore, DNP, RN, CCRN, CEN, ACNP-BC,ANP-BC,GNP-BC, acute care nurse practitioner, Trauma and Critical Care Surgery, UK Health Care, served as assistant chief nurse with the 10th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad in 2005 and 2006, nearly 80 percent of her nursing staff had graduated from nursing school that May. Yet by the time they left, most had taken and passed either the Certified Emergency Nursing Examination or the Critical Care Nurse Examination.

“That gave these nurses the opportunity to go home with something very tangible,” Said COL Moore, who taught the review classes for both exams in the mornings between shifts when the hospital caseload was lightest. “After a year in theater, they had the board certification they needed to be eligible to get their specialty and get some additional pay. It was very ‘Here are your classes…here is your exam…DUCK AND COVER!’”

COL Moore herself joined the Army after working for several years as a physical education instructor and school nurse and wanted to find a way to pay for her BSN. Now22 years, three degrees and five deployments later, “…it’s really turned out to be one of the best things I ever did,” said COL Moore. “I have loved every minute of it. And there’s a whole lot of opportunity that still awaits me.”

One of the benefits of early and diverse experiences is it gives young nurses the opportunity to practice the leadership skills drilled into them. As a new RN, CDR Briscoe remembers being put on night shift and placed in charge of other medical professionals on his floor.

“You really receive a unique opportunity to lead people from different walks of life, experience different cultures, and are faced with challenges that you wouldn’t experience in the civilian setting,” said CDR Briscoe. “You will be put in unique environments where you’re going to be asked to produce and given an opportunity to excel. I certainly appreciate every opportunity that I’ve gotten since coming into the Navy in 1985.”

With outstanding opportunities in education, experience and leadership, the nurses of the U.S. Armed Forces are equipped to make a positive impact both at home and abroad. From undergraduate ROTC students to military officers with years of service, the College of Nursing does its part to equip each of them with the academic and clinical skills needed to help military nurses do their part to serve our country.

Feature banner - COL Kathryn Moore, DNP, RN, CCRN, CEN, ACNP-BC, ANP-BC, GNP-BC, U.S. Army Reserve