Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Neil W. McCabe | The Deputy Commanding General of the Army Reserve Medical Command Brig. Gen. Mary E....... read more read more
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FORREST CITY, Ark. - Two British Army Reserve nurses joined the Army Reserve Medical Command’s 3274th U.S. Army Hospital supporting "Arkansas Care" as part of an Innovative Readiness Training partnership with the Delta Regional Authority providing medical, dental and vision services July 25 to Aug. 2 to residents of East Arkansas.
British Army Reserve nurse Capt. Lorna McIntosh, 225th Field Ambulance Medical Unit, Dundee, Scotland, said she ended up in Arkansas with the 3274th USAH after she attended a meeting for volunteers for the U.K.-U.S. exchange. Once known as the Territorial Army, the United Kingdom now uses the title British Army Reserve.
McIntosh, assigned to the free clinic in Earle, Arkansas, said she helps out where she can, principally in the clinic’s triage section taking vital signs and helping the patients get the help they need.
“The people who come in for services are so grateful,” she said. “They always thank us for coming.
Working with the 3274th USAH Soldiers has been an excellent experiences but there have been some hurdles, the captain said.
“I have to speak slowly, and they always think I am from England or Ireland,” she said. “But, we seem to manage quite well. I understand their accent —they don’t speak quickly here—but, they speak kind of low, so you are leaning in to hear what they are saying.”
Her hometown of Aberdeen, Scotland, is quite different from East Arkansas, she said.
“Aberdeen is a city, it is the center of the Britain oil industry,” she said. “It is quite a bit colder and busier and built up, whereas here is all agriculture.”
Maj. Wilma King, the officer in charge of the clinic set up in Earle, said having McIntosh on her team is a good experience for her Soldiers an interesting twist to their mission. “She is really great, she really fits in here with us—and we only pretend not to understand her accent.”
At the Brinkley clinic, another British Army Reserve nurse Maj. Susan E. Garland, 335th Medical Evacuation Regiment, said she is also a participant in the U.K.-U.S. exchange program.
“My duties are in the triage area,” she said. “I look after people after they come in the front door, assessing where they need to been seen and who they need to be seen by.”
Garland said she has been to the United States before, but this is her first trip to Arkansas.
“It’s big,” she said. “It’s very sprawled out—in England everything is very built up with lots of houses and lots of flats.”
England has fewer green areas, she said. “Everything here is beautifully open with lots of fresh air.”
The major said the patients have all been friendly. “They all seem very happy and keen to be here—they are very chirpy people.”
This is not the first time the major has worked with the Americans.
“I worked with the Americans in 2003 in Kosovo—Camp Bondsteel—and I did notice quite a few differences in the way the Americans looked after their medical patients and how we looked after our medical patients. I am very curious to see if that gap has narrowed.”
Brig. Gen. Mary E. Link, the deputy commanding general of the Army Reserve Medical Command, visits the Arkansas Care clinics throughout the East Arkansas Region, spearheaded by the Soldiers of the 3274th USAH, Southeast Medical Area Readiness Support Group, augmented by Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps Reserve unit, as well as a team of medical officers from the UK.
Link had the opportunity to speak to British nurse Garland about her experiences while supporting Arkansas Care mission.
“Maj. Garland has great enthusiasm and experience that she brings to us,” she said. “She deployed to Iraq and Kosovo and it was refreshing to hear her speak as a nurse with that experience about the work we are doing here.”
The general said when she met with McIntosh at the Earle health clinic, the two women talked about the advantages of pairing exchange nurses, so that they each has someone to reach out to.
Link said the exchange program between the United States and the United Kingdom is a program she looks for the Army Reserve Medical Command to expand.
| Date Taken: | 08.07.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 09.05.2014 13:38 |
| Story ID: | 141266 |
| Location: | FORREST CITY, AR, US |
| Hometown: | ABERDEEN, GMP, GB |
| Hometown: | DUNDEE, TAY, GB |
| Web Views: | 481 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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