Eisenhower Army Medical Center, Ga.  –   For Soldiers training to become Army practical nurses, learning the technical skills of the job is only one part of the journey.

At Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center on Fort Gordon, Ga., leaders in the 68C Practical Nurse Course Phase 2 program have reorganized the way they approach that journey, placing Soldiers’ well-being ahead of the academic and professional milestones they must reach.

Lt. Col. Jessica Cassidy, director of the 68C Practical Nurse Course Phase 2 program, said the change came after the leadership team recognized the unique challenges many Soldiers face when they arrive at Eisenhower.

“When we arrived, there was a really unique problem set here at Eisenhower that we had to address,” Cassidy said. “The main approach that we took was reorganizing our priorities of effort.”

The 68C Practical Nurse Course is Advanced Individual Training for Soldiers pursuing the Practical Nursing Specialist military occupational specialty. Eisenhower is one of five sites that offers the second phase of the course.
Students spend time in the classroom learning the concrete material required for nursing, as well as in the skills lab, where they practice the hands-on tasks they will need to perform as practical nurses.

They also complete three levels of clinical training.

The first two levels focus on the foundations of nursing, allowing students to develop the skills needed to provide patient care and work as part of a healthcare team.

During the third level, students rotate through four subspecialties: obstetrics, pediatrics, intensive care and stepdown. The rotations expose students to different patient populations and levels of care while helping them build confidence in a clinical setting.

But for Cassidy, Master Sgt. Andrew Stewart, the program’s noncommissioned officer in charge, and Maj. Seth Hemker, deputy director of the program, preparing Soldiers for clinicals and classroom examinations begins with ensuring they have the support they need outside the classroom.

Cassidy said the leadership team’s first priority is to develop Soldiers as individuals.

“Our goal is to grow the Soldiers as individuals and help fill their skills and knowledge gaps as people first,” she said. “Taking care of the person first, and every single element of that.”

The team’s second priority is helping Soldiers acclimate to military life and overcome barriers they may be experiencing. Only then does the program focus on the third priority: helping them become 68Cs.

“Honestly, I think that flipping those priorities changed everything,” Cassidy said.

Although the course is academically rigorous, Cassidy said learning the material is not always the greatest challenge for Soldiers entering the program.

“Becoming 68Cs is actually not the hardest thing they have to overcome by arriving here,” she said. “Most of them have skill gaps of just adulting, family-life problems and stressors.”

The leadership team works to identify and address those issues before they become larger obstacles for students.

“Even going one paycheck with the wrong pay could be catastrophic to their academic success,” Cassidy said. “Every single day that we come to work as a leadership team, our number one goal is to remove those barriers and solve those nonacademic problems for the Soldiers.”

While the leadership team works to support Soldiers as individuals, the faculty focuses on helping them meet the program’s academic and clinical standards.

“Our faculty will focus on their academics,” Cassidy said. “We know that they will get them where they need to be academically.”

Along with classroom, skills-lab and clinical training, students complete a Field Training Exercise. During the weeklong exercise, they train in a field environment designed to replicate conditions they could face during wartime.

The exercise gives students an opportunity to apply nursing knowledge in an environment that differs from the routines and resources of a traditional medical treatment facility. It reinforces that practical nurses may be called on to provide care wherever the Army needs them.

For Cassidy, the work done in the program has an impact beyond graduation.

“Here at Eisenhower, at our Phase 2 site, we metaphorically save people’s lives,” she said. “And those individuals will go on to literally save human beings’ lives.”

Cassidy said she believes the Soldiers who complete the program will one day have a direct impact on the survivability of others in wartime.

“I truly believe that these Soldiers will impact Soldiers’ survivability in a positive way,” she said. “But they will not get there if we do not do what we do exactly how we do it.”