AF nurses, medical technicians lead the way

Each day, nurses step forward embracing new technologies, resolving emerging issues and accepting ever-changing roles in their profession. They lead the way for their patients, colleagues and organizations as a whole. The theme for this year’s Nurses Week is “Nurses Leading the Way.”

Health care is an industry that is constantly changing and evolving. Today more than ever, nurses are stepping out of their comfort zones and are active contributors and innovators in the health care system.

National Nurses Week recognizes the impact nurses contribute to the lives and health of their patients. Each year, it is observed from May 6 to 12 as a commemoration to Florence Nightingale, whose birthday is May 12. Nightingale was the founder of professional nursing, and it was her performance as a nurse 160 years ago during the Crimean War that forever established the nursing profession. The changes she implemented in the care of the wounded in that war in 1854 reduced the mortality rate from 42 to 2 percent. That pattern of excellence in providing care to patients at home and in war is going strong in today’s military health care.

World War II defined the role of the flight nurse and paved the way for the establishment of the Air Force Nurse Corps on July 1, 1949. Today, the Air Force Nurse Corps is more than 3,000 strong and consists of multiple specialties from flight nursing to advanced nurse practitioner roles.

The Air Force Medical Service also adapted the “total nursing force” concept that incorporated the Nurse Corps and Aerospace Medical Technician career fields as “one team” in providing world-class patient care. Nurses and medical technicians stationed in the KMC serve in various areas, such as aeromedical evacuation, contingency aeromedical staging facility, critical care air transport, operating room, emergency department, intensive care units, inpatient units, primary care clinics, outpatient specialty care clinics, and education and training. Between Ramstein and Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, the Air Force has more than 250 nurses and medical technicians working as teams. In observance of the week celebration, the Air Force celebrates the annual event as “Nurse and Tech Week.”