WTB Nurses Continuing Army Nurse Corps 111-year Legacy Caring for Others

By Ms Gloria Montgomery (Army Medicine)February 2, 2012

WTB Nurses Continue Army Nurse Corps 111 YeaRs Caring for Others
Unlike bedside nursing where patients might be hospitalized for a week or less, WTB nurses will care for their Soldiers a year or more. From left, Capt. Lee Phillips, Lt. Col. Selina Williams and Capt. LaVeeta Springer. (Photo by Gloria Montgomery, W... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

When Capt. Lee Phillips, a 39-year-old Warrior Transition Brigade (WTB) nurse case manager, was 10, her friends were playing doctors and nurses. She, however, was imitating her police-chief father playing cops and robbers with her brothers in their rural Florida community. Had she not witnessed her father administering life-saving CPR on her grandmother, Phillips today might be wearing the badge of a law-enforcement officer instead of the Army caduceus with an embossed capital "N." At that point, she said, she realized she wanted to save lives.

So did 37-year-old Capt. LeVeeta Springer, WTB's officer in charge of medical operations, who dressed up every Halloween donning a stethoscope and nurses outfit because she wanted to be just like her grandmother, a gentle, warm individual who wore her profession on her face. That, smile, the Louisville, Ken., native said, sold her on her goal of becoming a nurse.

For 50-year-old Lt. Col. Selina Williams, WTB nurse case manager chief, dedicating her life to caring for others was a gift she learned from her modern-day "Clara Barton" mother who was a nurse in a Gainesville, Fla., hospital.

Three woman, three unique paths. All with one common denominator: members of the Army Nurse Corps, which Feb. 2 celebrates 111 years of "selfish service to our nation."

Nursing shortage fear key to Nurse Corps roots

Formally established Feb. 2, 1901, the Nurse Corps (female) became a permanent corps of the Medical Department under the Army Reorganization Act after the Spanish American War forced Army leadership to rethink their reliance on a reserve force of contract civilian nurses during wartime. Without an active-duty component, the surgeon general feared, a nation at war would be crippled by the lack of medical support because of the nursing shortage. Originally limited to females, in 1955 the profession opened its doors to male Reserve nurses.

From World War 1 to the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Army nurses have been instrumental in increasing the survival rate for the wounded, thanks to innovative battlefield medical advancements, including providing causality care closer to the frontlines, improving evacuation procedures, enhancing trauma care and improving post-surgical nursing. In addition, thousands of nurses have deployed to theaters in Haiti, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, and for disaster relief and humanitarian efforts worldwide.

That wartime experience, said Springer, who deployed to a war zone shortly after completing her registered nursing (RN) degree, was an unpleasant confirmation that nursing is in her blood, that becoming an Army nurse was the right thing to do. Ironically, Springer didn't use her healing hands and nursing skills on American Soldiers, but on Iraqi detainees, many of who were suspected to be insurgents.

"Nurses know no enemies," Springer said. "The detainees can tell when you're concerned, and whatever he may have done, you look at the human being in front of you," adding that she witnessed numerous times a change in the detainees' perception of Americans when administering aid.

"When they see us caring for them, even though they may have been part of the insurgency, they see a different side of us and see us fighting for their lives," she said, adding that showing compassion helped build trust with not only the detainees, but their families as well. "0ne of the detainees even said he was going to name his daughter after the Army nurse who was caring for him."

Williams, who first enlisted in the Reserves, earned her RN degree in 1992. After spending three years in the civilian sector, she decided to go active duty after recognizing the advantages of an Army nursing career.

Army Nurse Corps not about a paycheck

"It's not about a paycheck to Army nurses," Williams said. "It's about opportunities to grow. Many of my civilian counterparts are still doing the same job, have the same mentors and have limited promotion opportunities."

Williams, who in 2002 deployed to Honduras on a joint humanitarian mission to provide hands-on training to Honduran nurses, said Army nursing also provides one with unique life experiences.

"By teaching Honduran nurses proper scrubbing and sterilization techniques, we were able to have an impact on their infection rates," Williams said, adding that during her deployment, the medical team also bought a VCR for the pediatric ward. "Knowing that you can make a difference and put a smile on someone's face is very rewarding."

Although Williams has only been at the WTB for six months, she already is finding her assignment here demanding.

"This assignment is challenging and is help me learn something new," the perioperative nurse said. "I wouldn't be able to do this in the civilian world because once you specialize, you're locked into that specialty."

Springer said another advantage over the civilian career nursing field is the financial incentive.

"We are offered incentives to become board certified, as well as long-term schooling to become a specialist. It's extremely expensive if you had to pay for it out of pocket," she said.

"Plus," Phillips said, "the Army provides its nurses with that extra training spectrum and experience that the civilian world never sees."

Ever since she was 16, Phillips had been involved in some aspect of medical care, first as a nurses' aid and then a Red Cross instructor. Her medical resume also consists of stints as an emergency medical technician, a paramedic, a flight paramedic, licensed practical nurse and now, a registered nurse.

"I always wanted to be a nurse, but I just took the scenic route to get here," she said, adding that she wouldn't change anything because it has made her the leader and person that she is today.

Ironically, Phillips enlisted in 1990 as a parts clerk. In 1998, she joined the Reserves as an Army medic, becoming a registered nurse in 2001.

Phillips, who helped developed the WTB's nurse case managers' orientation program that is being adopted by the Warrior Transition Command as a universal nurse case managers' training guide, said one thing she enjoys about her role as lead nurse case manager for A Company, 1st Battalion, is teaching squad leaders how to perform basic life-saving skills, including using an automated external defibrillator.

"Teaching makes me feel fantastic, especially when I know that a life can be saved because of the knowledge I have shared with non-medical personnel," she said, adding that working with WTB Soldiers has been the most rewarding of her 20 plus years in the Army.

"The rewards I received for caring for our wounded warriors exceeds anything I've ever done," Phillips said.

One of her most memorable moments in nursing was when a Soldier came up to her and thanked Phillips and her team for all the help he received while assigned to the WTB.

"He arrived to us with anger-management issues and trust problems related to PTSD. He told us that once he bought into the care everyone was trying to provide, he realized it really, really works," she said, adding that today, this Soldier has a better relationship with his wife and kids than before he ever deployed.

In the 30 plus years Williams has been in the Army, she has seen leadership in the Nurse Corps become younger and more diversified.

"Unless you were a lieutenant colonel or above, you had little chance of being in a leadership position," said Williams, whose Army career before she became an RN included time as a dental assistant, cook, medic and licensed vocation nurse. "Now, nurses are hospital commanders, line officers, company commanders and now a nurse as surgeon general of the Army with the appointment of Lt. Gen. Patricia Horoho."

Springer, who was a medic first, has been involved in Army medicine for more than 18 years and admits being an Army nurse is hard at times because of the things you see that can't be "unseen" like the images of war, the suffering, the untreated diseases. Although coping with that aspect of nursing is difficult, Springer said she wouldn't have it any other way.

"There's nothing like taking care of someone who has served," she said on the rewards of being a member of the Army Nurse Corps. "Nurses are supposed to protect the vulnerable, and who are some of the most deserving and vulnerable people? Injured Soldiers and veterans. It's very rewarding to be able to care for an injured Soldier and his or her family. That's what makes us so different from civilian nurses."

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