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Naval Nurse Corps
Insignia |
Making the leap from enlisted Hospital Corpsman to commissioned Nurse Corps officer seemed liked a natural progression in my career. I applied for the Navy's
Medical Enlisted Commissioning Program (MECP) and was selected in 2007. In April of 2008, Christy and I moved to Nacogdoches, TX and I started doing prerequisite nursing classes that summer. In the fall of 2009, I was accepted into the
Richard and Lucille DeWitt School of Nursing at
Stephen F. Austin State University and it's was wonderful. Difficult, but wonderful.
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Grand Opening of the Richard and
Lucille DeWitt School of Nursing
at Stephen F. Austin State
University |
Currently stationed at
Naval Medical Center Portsmouth (NMCP) in Portsmouth, Virginia, I am a staff nurse in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. I feel really lucky to be here. I worked for 14 months on the Inpatient Pediatrics Ward and loved it. It gave me a solid foundation to transition to the NICU. Working with children is an incredibly rewarding job and I am thankful for it everyday. NMCP is also a teaching hospital, so the education and training opportunities are endless. I've gotten to take some really interesting courses and attend some great workshops and conferences. I'm also a trained SAFE (Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner) for the hospital. It's a difficult duty to have, but unfortunately, sexual assault is something that occurs all too often in the military. We work with
NCIS, the
JAG Corps, and local authorities in sexual assault cases. Very sad, but very interesting stuff.
Becoming a nurse is one of the best decisions I've ever made. I can't imagine being happier doing anything else in the Navy.
