UN-Official Plans

This week all the Army Nurses at Walter Reed are meeting with our Branch Managers. Our Branch Managers are responsible for assigning enough staff to each Army Hospital and helping us get to where we want to be to advance our careers. We each get about 15 minutes to meet with our Branch Manager so it is always a good idea to prepare a little in advance.

To prepare for my 15 minutes I met with my Section Chief COL Gordon, a former Branch Manager, to talk about some of my options on Friday. I learned in that meeting that I probably won't be bedside too much longer.

I met with LTC Lehning my Branch Manager today to talk about what I would like to do and to see if the Army Nurse Corps could help me get to where I want to be. Here is a glimpse of what my next 5 years may look like...

Aug 2009 - Deploy to Iraq

March 2010 - Temporary Duty for AMEDD Captain's Career Course and Airborne School

June 2010 - Reassignment to Brooke Army Medical Center's Burn Intensive Care Unit in San Antonio, TX

September 2012 - Begin Master's Degree (Trauma Clinical Nurse Specialist/Acute Care Nurse Practitioner)

It looks like I will be leaving bedside nursing in September 2012. While I am looking forward to teaching and Head Nurse positions, I am sad to think that I will be leaving the bedside so soon.

National Theatre

Tonight after work one of my fellow Army Nurses and I raced in to downtown DC to catch A Chorus Line at the National Theatre. While the theatre was only 7-8 miles from Walter Reed it took us a good 45 minutes to get there. I did not know the full story of the musical prior to attending but still had a great time! Thanks Melinda!

East Coast Double Black Diamond

Today was probably the last day of this year's snow season for me. Matt O'Connell (CPT, USAR) and I hit went up to Liberty Mountain for one last day of playing in the snow. We were both wearing t-shirts as it was about 70+ degrees when we left at 1600. It was warm enough that I had to open the vents on the legs of my pants. A gorgeous day but really warm. Matt is a really good skier so I was pushing myself to try to keep up with him. I learned quickly that snowboards and moguls do not go together very well... fun to try but a lot of work. The last few runs of the day Matt convinced me to try one of their Double Black Diamonds. It was crazy steep for me! Matt took a video of my second attempt. Of course it is the only time I fell on this particular run and I fell after the steep section, but oh well. Sad to think that this was probably my last time snowboarding for the next two years...

Any one up for a snowboard/ski trip to New Zealand summer 2010?

Deploying to Iraq

In August I am scheduled to deploy to Iraq with the 47th Combat Support Hospital for 6-9 months. (Often abbreviated CSH and pronounced "cash".) The 47th CSH is based out of Ft. Lewis, Washington and left for Iraq last month. Upon arrival to Iraq they were stationed at Contingency Operating Base Speicher located in Tikrit (about 105 miles north of Baghdad). Three of the nurses I work with in the Walter Reed Medical ICU have already deployed with the 47th CSH and will be coming home as I arrive with other Army Nurses to take their places.

During the next few months I will be travelling to different Army bases in the US to train-up for deployment. While I have some vacations already planned for this year I am going to try to add on some days to my trips to spend some time at home as I can before August.

I will be putting up some more information regarding the 47th CSH and COB Speicher to give you an idea where I will be and the history of who I am deploying with.

Mike and Erika Snowboarding

Today I got to go snowboarding with Mike and Erika Cullen. I work with Erika in the MICU/PICU. We have been talking about going snowboarding together since January but our schedules never matched up. I always worked on her days off and she always worked on my days off. We finally found a day that worked for us. And even better, her husband Mike was able to take the day off from studying for Med School to come hangout! Mike and I took on some intermediate slopes while Erika took a quick lesson. Soon after Erika's lesson we all hooked up and took on the bunny slopes to help Erika feel comfortable before taking on Sidewinder an intermediate slope. Erika did great! I was amazed at how quickly she was taking on the hill! I cannot wait until I can go again!