TNCC Certified!

For the last three days I have been taking the Trauna Nurse Core Course with about 140 other Army Nurses. Friday was spent in lecture for 11 hours in a cold warehouse. We covered topics like truama in pregnancy, shock, head and neck truama, pediatrics, and geriatrics. Saturday morning was spent in more lecture. Saturday afternoon we broke down into groups of four and went into classrooms to practice our skills. We had classes regarding securing airways, spinal stabilization, and a class focusing on the primary and secondary surveys. It is no longer the simple ABC method that we all learn in first aid classes. Now we go from 'A' to 'I'. From three simple steps to nine steps. But the ENA (Emergency Nurse's Association) method makes sense so I am glad that all Army nurses are required to take this course to be sure that we are all on the same page when we get deployed.

Sunday we came in for the testing. There was a 50-question written test that took about half an hour and then the three skills. Most of us finished the entire evaluation process in a little over an hour. We all hung around after to get our scores (we all passed!) and then clean up the classrooms. To compensate for making us work over the weekend, LTC Bohlin is giving us Monday and Tuesday off! I am looking forward to sleeping in on a Monday. It will be a little weird, but great!