Gulf War Nurses

Since the pioneering work of nineteenth-century nurses such as Florence Nightingale, Dorothea Dix and Clara Barton, professional nurses have been involved in caring for the sick and wounded in combat situations. This book contains the accounts of 14 nurses who served in the U.S. military nurse corps during the Persian Gulf and Iraq wars. These men and women describe how they found themselves serving during wartime, the soldiers they cared for, the professionals they worked with and the impact they made in their patients’ lives. These varied accounts attest to the tremendous impact this profession has on the lives of individual soldiers and the health of armies at large.

The Most Qualified is the harrowing true story of the author's service hitch in Saudi Arabia, and of how she and her fellow Reservists - few of whom had had combat training - were able to care for 12,000 patients within a three-month period.

Vivian Bullwinkle - Changi - Malaria - Dysentery - Typhoid - Betty Jeffrey - War injuries and illnesses.

This unique volume presents the experience of 37 U.S. military nurses sent to the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters of war to care for the injured and dying. The personal and professional challenges they faced, the difficulties they endured, the dangers they overcame, and the consequences they grappled with are vividly described from deployment to discharge. In mobile surgical field hospitals and fast-forward teams, detainee care centers, base and city hospitals, medevac aircraft, and aeromedical staging units, these nurses cared for their patients with compassion, acumen, and inventiveness. And when they returned home, they dealt with their experience as they could. The text is divided into thematic chapters on essential issues: how the nurses separated from their families and the uncertainties they faced in doing so; their response to horrific injuries that combatants, civilians and children suffered; working and living in Iraq and Afghanistan for extended periods; personal health issues; and what it meant to care for enemy insurgents and detainees. Also discussed is how the experience enhanced their clinical skills, why their adjustment to civilian life was so difficult, and how the war changed them as nurses, citizens, and people. Key Features: Describes verbatim the experiences of 37 nurses in two brutal, chaotic theaters of war Offers poignant encounters with patients Includes advice, clarity, and lessons learned about nursing in war Offers a women's health perspective on working and living in a war zone Demonstrates the dedication, expertise, and spirit of military nurses

The true definition of the word "War" per various defining sources is: "A state of open, armed, often prolonged conflict carried on between nations, states, or parties." And a true definition of the word "Nurse" per various defining sources is: "A person educated and trained to care for the sick or disabled." I chose to become a part of the second definition. My main being in life besides that of a family member is to help another human being to become well or to assist them to gain the ability to care for themselves doing their disabling times. Never would I have thought that my career would have taken me into the vials of pure hell! But, it did. Not after I became an adult in a world that sometimes seems unfair. Not after I became a member of my country's armed forces. But after I went to live up to my responsibilities as an Army Nurse to assist those in need; did such a saddening of events occur. Events that I sometimes would prefer to forget. Events that won't stay out of my memory. Events that were at times enjoyable and others not worth the seconds or minutes they took to become processed. This is my story; this is the person I am. This is the person I became. This is the person I shall remain to be "An Army Nurse" proud to have provided the best service I could have in disastrous times when your daily routine 24/7 was often to work while wearing gas masks. Or in strenuous times when the casualties from all sides would mount and you would find yourself working on persons from other countries, such as the enemies whose hygienic way of cleaning themselves was by using their hands instead of tissue. Or in less patient times when the anxiety of participation to get this war finally started and over with would put you in the role of confidant to your peers and them to you. This story welcomes you to find the inner strength to say regardless what comes along in life, you can say, "I can beat this obstacle." "Yes I Can!"

During the Second World War, more than 4,000 civilian nurses enlisted as Nursing Sisters, a specially created all-female officers' rank of the Canadian Armed Forces. They served in all three armed force branches and all the major theatres of war, yet nursing as a form of war work has long been under-explored. An Officer and a Lady fills that gap. Cynthia Toman analyzes how gender, war, and medical technology intersected to create a legitimate role for women in the masculine environment of the military and explores the incongruous expectations placed on military nurses as "officers and ladies."

Norman tells the dramatic story of fifty women—members of the Army, Navy, and Air Force Nurse Corps—who went to war, working in military hospitals, aboard ships, and with air evacuation squadrons during the Vietnam War. Here, in a moving narrative, the women talk about why they went to war, the experiences they had while they were there, and how war affected them physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

The true definition of the word 'War" per various defining sources is: 'A state of open, armed, often prolonged conflict carried on between nations, states, or parties." And a true definition of the word 'Nurse" per various defining sources is: 'A person educated and trained to care for the sick or disabled." I chose to become a part of the second definition. My main being in life besides that of a family member is to help another human being to become well or to assist them to gain the ability to care for themselves doing their disabling times. Never would I have thought that my career would have taken me into the vials of pure hell! But, it did. Not after I became an adult in a world that sometimes seems unfair. Not after I became a member of my country's armed forces. But after I went to live up to my responsibilities as an Army Nurse to assist those in need; did such a saddening of events occur. Events that I sometimes would prefer to forget. Events that won't stay out of my memory. Events that were at times enjoyable and others not worth the seconds or minutes they took to become processed. This is my story; this is the person I am. This is the person I became. This is the person I shall remain to be. 'An Army Nurse" proud to have provided the best service I could have in disastrous times when your daily routine 24/7 was often to work while wearing gas masks. Or in strenuous times when the casualties from all sides would mount and you would find yourself working on persons from other countries, such as the enemies whose hygienic way of cleaning themselves was by using their hands instead of tissue. Or in less patient times when the anxiety of participation to get this war finallystarted and over with would put you in the role of confidant to your peers and them to you. This story welcomes you to find the inner strength to say regardless what comes along in life, you can say, "I can beat this obstacle." 'Yes I Can!"