ABSTRACT
Many features of the COVID-19 pandemic and care during natural disasters echo the austere settings encountered by nurses serving in forward-deployed military units. CPT Welder's deployment experience with the 21st Combat Support Hospital (CSH) was anything but ordinary because over the next 180 days, the CSH would provide care for nearly 1800 trauma patients. In addition to dealing with an onslaught of casualties, CPT Welder and his colleagues were a world away from home living in an active combat zone on the fringes of a battlefield. While the merit of sending a new graduate to war can be debated, CPT Welder met the requirements to deploy;he was physically fit and was a board-certified Nurse Anesthetist. Research and anecdotal evidence have both demonstrated that traditional educational programs do not adequately prepare RNs or APRNs to provide care in austere or forward-deployed military settings. Based on these experiences, the GSN faculty encourages all nursing school's faculty to consider making an investment in curricular change to prepare graduates to provide care in unusual, stressful, and underresourced environments. As COVID has so clearly demonstrated, every nurse needs to be prepared to provide care in unusual, stressful, and resource constrained settings, sometimes right here in the United States. In 2005, many military members were deployed to Iraq, but this story is significant because this alumnus, Captain (CPT) Welder, was deployed to Iraq 88 days after earning his Nurse Anesthesia Degree. Nursing leaders must prepare future nurses for care outside of traditional practice. © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.