Nurse Summer Training with CDT Rossin

August 20, 2014

The Nursing Summer Training Program, or NSTP, is an opportunity I participated in this summer, allowing me to spend the entirety of June in the ER at William-Beaumont Army Medical Center in Ft. Bliss, Texas. I spent over 120 hours assessing and treating patients in the ER, right alongside the other wonderful nurses and doctors. We saved lives and helped make others comfortable as they passed away. We auscultated, palpated, and discussed our way towards likely diagnoses and treatments. Day after day I had an overwhelming amount of opportunities to work on my nursing skills as I met and treated the Armed Service members in Texas, as well as their families. They taught me about their military experience while I taught them about their ailments. Each patient was unique; some cursed, some cried, and some laughed in the face of pain. A tragic few needed chest compression, while others simply needed Benadryl, and some patients just needed to be mollified and have their hand held. I was the luckiest cadet to be able to work with the staff at William-Beaumont as well as the soldiers in Texas. The entire experience was copacetic, and I came home with a plethora of stories in my pocket feeling more ready than ever for my next semester of Nursing School to begin.