Project SERVE: Auburn Nursing Students Learn at Walter Reed Bethesda

BETHESDA, MD, UNITED STATES

01.11.2019

Story by Bernard Little 

Walter Reed National Military Medical Center

Joshua Crumbley, a senior nursing student at Auburn University Montgomery, gets a little emotional when discussing why he’s pursuing a nursing career, as well as his participation in Project SERVE (Student’s Education Related to the Veteran Experience).
Project SERVES offers nursing students an educational experience providing them with skills requisite to manage the unique needs of military members, veterans and their families. Students in the program spent March 12-14 at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center as part of their health-care training.
Crumbley explained that in 2011, he was able to participate in an American Red Cross program allowing him to work with inpatients and outpatients in physical therapy at WRNMMC. “I saw things that changed by life,” he said, adding “the determination and drive” of wounded warriors in their efforts to heal, was inspiring and left an indelible mark on him.
In addition, Crumbly shared that his dad, retired Navy Cmdr. David Crumbley, worked in the Complex Wound and Limb Salvage Program at WRNMMC. “He saw a lot of service members with wounds that weighed heavily on him and everyone who worked here at that time. My dad started Project SERVE to give civilian students the experience that I have had [at WRNMMC] and hopefully, that they would take something from this out into the civilian world so that they would be better able to help our veterans.
“I felt that I was led to work with the [military] population and try to make an impact, or to at least to try and give back to these veterans the way that they have given us so much and allowed so many freedoms to exist in our lives,” Crumbley continued.
The nursing student added that what he and his colleagues saw and learned at WRNMMC is unique and goes beyond the textbook curriculum. “Seeing some of the veterans here who have had the technologies available now to assist them [in their healing] is by far the greatest experience I have had. I was in tears the other day because I was able to see what seven years had done for a patient who had lost two limbs, and how [technology and world-class care] had created a whole new life for him,” Crumbley added.
WRNMMC, Auburn University and Auburn University Montgomery launched Project SERVE in 2014, and since then nursing students from the universities have annually spent a week at WRNMMC and in the National Capital Region learning to care for beneficiaries of the Military Health System.
Along with nine other nursing students from Auburn, Crumbley saw first-hand care at WRNMMC during their week here. In addition, the nursing students received training in the Stop the Bleed course, and heard first-persons accounts from service members who cared for “friendlies and hostiles” while deployed in combat zones. The training for the Auburn students while they were at WRNMMC also included briefings in the care of patients with amputations, as well as instruction in mental health care, trauma simulation, traumatic brain injury, suicide awareness and prevention, and multi-disciplinary team rehabilitation.
Navy Capt. Valerie Morrison, WRNMMC’s director of nursing services, welcomed the Auburn nursing students to the medical center March 12, discussing with them the rewards and challenges of the nursing profession. She emphasized that wounded warriors don’t want sympathy, but the tools and encouragement to help them heal. “They choose to be in the military. They choose to defend our country, and they don’t want that lessened at all for what they have sacrificed. They and their families are amazing.”
The WRNMMC chief nurse added that while those in the nursing profession will be in demand, it is important that nurses take care of themselves, allow themselves to be human, have positive coping strategies, build resiliency, and practice self-care (good nutrition, exercise, outside hobbies, healthy relationships and rest).
Manny Santiago, trauma/acute care surgery clinical nurse specialist, conducted the Stop the Bleed training for the nursing students, explaining to them that uncontrolled bleeding is the number one cause of preventable death from trauma. In addition, he explained that the greater the number of people who know how to control the bleeding of an injured patient, the greater the chances the patient has of surviving. He stressed the importance of a tourniquet to stopping the bleed, crediting it with saving numerous lives on the battlefield in recent years.
Navy Lt. Cmdr. Teresa Dent, Army Maj. Veronica Familia, Air Force Maj. Kerrie Sanders, Army Maj. Manuel Galaviz, Army Maj. Kedrick Drakes and Army Lt. Col. Jacqueline Clements discussed their deployed combat experiences with the Auburn nursing students. The military officers stressed that from their deployment experiences they have gained a greater appreciation for a number of things, most importantly, “life in general,” Familia said. Sanders added that her deployment created an increased sense of awareness, and Galaviz encouraged the nursing students to be attentive and patience to the unique situations of service members who have deployed and their readjustments to life following their deployments.
Sanders explained that although she was challenged, she felt it necessary to provide the same level of care to those who were hostile to U.S. troops as she did her colleagues, seeing them first and foremost as human beings, and with the understanding that if her fellow service members were injured and captured by the enemy, she would want them to receive humane treatment.
All the Auburn nursing students expressed appreciation for their time spent at WRNMMC, as well as admiration and inspiration for the wounded warriors and service members who care for them at the medical center.
Jordan White, another senior Auburn nursing student, said she was moved to become a nurse by “the thought of taking care of others.” She added she became interested in Project SERVE because her grandfather who served in the military. She’s been assisting him with Veterans Affairs in receiving care and his benefits. “He’s had illnesses and that made me interested in learning more about veterans and their challenges,” she said.
White added that what she will take away from her experiences at WRNMMC are “the determined and inspiring outlook of the amputees and the enthusiasm of the nursing staff.”
Miya Black, also a senior Auburn nursing student as well as an Air Force Reserve staff sergeant, explained she comes from “a long line of nurses. My grandmother and great grandmothers were nurses, and taking care of others is something that I’m comfortable with. It always makes me feel better to see and help others get better,” she said.
Black, who met Chief of the Army Nurse Corps Maj. Gen. Barbara Holcomb while at WRNMMC, said she was also impressed by the camaraderie of the various military branches working together to care for the nation’s heroes at the medical center. “The entire experience was amazing,” Black said.

• Date Taken: 01.11.2019
• Date Posted: 12.31.2018 18:59
• Story ID: 306770
• Location: BETHESDA, MD, US