Two Kuwait Army nurses came to United States Military Hospital - Kuwait to observe and work with U.S. Army Soldiers as part of a host nation medical exchange with 349th Combat Support Hospital at Camp Arifjan June 17, 2019.
"We have some medical providers from the Kuwaiti military come today to see what we do in the EMT (emergency medical - trauma) section," said Capt. Theresa Terry, EMT training officer in charge. "We plan to teach them how to do a trauma assessment. We also plan to teach them to use an ultra sound as an alternative way to find veins. There will be some shadowing so they will be assisting with patients throughout the day."
In addition to assisting with things such as stitching up a laceration and applying tourniquets, the nurses also got the chance to see the facility and participate in an exercise.
"We showed them how our hospital is set up and we have what's called a code blue training, which essentially, somebody goes down in the hospital for cardiac arrest and the practice would to get their heart going again with drugs and CPR and such," said Lt. Col. Christopher Kretschmer, EMT officer in charge.
The nurses were paired up with Soldiers working in the EMT throughout the day.
"Always excited to work with peers from another country. We know what we have to take care of our patients but it's always good to compare knowledge" said Terry.
The visiting nurses enjoyed their visit as well. Each were even given a pair of Army hospital scrubs, complete with their names on them.
"This is a new experience. We see different diagnosis, different medication, and different patients. I like this," said Abdul Rahman Shabeeb. "I'd like to say thank you to everyone for their smiles. I know now that they are all friendly people."
These Kuwait/U.S. exchanges are scheduled monthly with various Army medical professionals, and there could be U.S. Army Soldiers training in a Kuwait hospital in the future.
"Hopefully as time goes on we'll be going to their hospital and seeing how they do things so we can share knowledge and experiences. We want to see the cultural differences and similarities between us and we want to build relationships," said Kretschmer.
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