FORT GORDON, Ga. (Nov. 14, 2014) - Capt. Ryan Galey, left, a course instructor assigned to Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center, demonstrates proper airway management with the help of 1st Lt. Harvey Rock, an intensive care unit nurse, also assign...
FORT GORDON, Ga. (Nov. 21, 2014) - Fort Gordon recently added to its growing list of training capabilities, thanks in part to one of the installation's nurses.
Maj. Kristine Broger was instrumental in bringing the Emergency Nurse Association's Trauma Core to Fort Gordon.
An estimated 40 nurses graduated from the course in August. Fort Gordon was one of the first military installation's to offer the 7th edition of TNCC, its latest version, which incorporates research from Iraq and Afghanistan to ensure early identification of life threatening injuries.
The course was taught by a small team of nurses from Fort Gordon and Fort Bragg, with hopes that some would emerge as instructors. That hope became a reality, thrusting Fort Gordon ahead as an official TNCC regional training site.
"We actually see now nurses that attended in August, who then attended an instructor course, are now legitimately teaching for their first time," said Fort Gordon TNCC program director, Broger.
And for the first time last week, six nurses from Fort Stewart, Georgia, attended TNCC alongside 12 of their Fort Gordon colleagues under the teaching of Fort Gordon instructors. It was the first time Fort Gordon opened the course to nurses from an outside installation -- a goal Broger was eager to attain that will help maximize participation.
"We're in the core location in this area to be able to provide it to smaller areas," Broger said. "We have more availability of (emergency room) and (intensive care unit) nurses to be instructors, so this is an ideal location."
The course used to be included in the Nurse Leadership track portion of Basic Officer Leadership Course, but was discontinued and is no longer a requirement for Army nurses. Broger, a seasoned nurse and combat veteran, knows firsthand the value of the course, and is passionate about seeing that every nurse is afforded an opportunity to take it. Up until now, nurses had few options.
"It's traditionally offered in the (Combat Casualty Care Course) in San Antonio, but if you didn't get selected to go to C-4 or don't have the funding to go down there, you couldn't take it," Broger said.
The other option is to take it in the civilian sector, but it can cost upward a couple hundred dollars.
Capt. Ryan Galey is one of 10 nurses who emerged from TNCC as an instructor. Galey, a United States Army Practical Nurse Course instructor assigned to Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center, said he'd like to see more people take advantage of the course now that it's expanded.
" I t 's a good thing that we're reaching out to other units and getting this program spread out to installations surrounding us," Galey said. "I believe that the more educated we are, the better we can all serve those whom we're charged to serve."
Lt. Col. Minerva Rodriguez, assistant deputy for clinical services for U.S. Army Medical Department Activity, Fort Stewart, said she took the course because her department wants to expand the ability for nurses to be able to assess for trauma patients. She plans to take what she learned back to Fort Stewart, and expects to have a positive impact on her community as a result of the course.
"Giving us the ability to be able to use this information is going to help improve our patient survivability and improve the mobility of patients that come through the ER that might be unstable," Rodriguez said.
The next TNCC will be in January, and offered every two months subsequently. Broger intends to expand the course by opening it up to nurses at Fort Benning, Georgia, and Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Her ultimate goal is to get maximum participation from outside installations.
"It's such an amazing national course that I hope it works out for them to get the funding to send people here," Broger said. "They may not be able to run their own program, but they can take back what they've learned, and teach younger nurses the basics of trauma."
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