Nurses Week: Nurses Host Professional Development Day for High School Students

BETHESDA, MD, UNITED STATES

05.14.2019

Story by Bernard Little 

Walter Reed National Military Medical Center

As part of their Nurses Week activities, the nursing team at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center hosted a professional development day for high school students interested in nursing and health-care fields on May 8.

Speaking to a group of approximately 30 high school students, Air Force Col. Julie Stola, acting deputy command surgeon, command nurse and chief of Force Development, Air Force District of Washington, Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, welcomed them to the event. A number of Air Force nurses under Stola’s leadership work at WRNMMC caring for patients.

In addition to overseeing nursing operations and developing and executing the Air Force surgeon general’s policy for one military treatment facility with more than 1,700 personnel delivering outpatient care for over 455,000 beneficiaries in the National Capital Region (Malcolm Grow Medical Clinic), Stola is also the Air Force District of Washington/SG’s consultant on nursing services. She also represents AFDW on the AF Nurse Corps Board of Directors.

Stola told the students at WRNMMC that nurses consistently rank at the top as the country's most trusted professionals. According to results from a Gallup poll concerning honesty and ethical standards in the workplace released in December, nurses ranked number one, a position they have maintained for 17 consecutive years, and every year except for one in the 20 years that Gallup has conducted the annual public opinion survey. The only time nurses did not rank at the top in the poll was following 9/11, when firefighters and other first responders topped the poll.

The American Nursing Association indicates that there are more than four million nurses in the United States, and the World Health Organization estimates that upward of one million additional nurses will be needed globally by 2020.

Stola explained to the students that the nursing profession is varied, including many specialties requiring different levels of education. Most of those in attendance are already preparing to become certified nursing assistants through their high school curriculums at Watkins Mill High School in Gaithersburg, Maryland or Thomas Edison High School of Technology in Silver Spring, Maryland.

“Oh, the places you will go,” said Stola to the students in describing the diversity of the nursing profession and where it can take the individuals who pursue nursing as a career. Stola explained that not only has she has had assignments throughout the world, but she’s also worked alongside service members from other branches, as well as civilian and contract nurses. She has deployed on four different occasions, including as the deputy team chief for aeromedical evacuation, team chief for aeromedical evacuation, chief nurse of a contingency aeromedical staging facility, and as the U.S. Forces Afghanistan Command Surgeon.

In addition to Stola, Manny Santiago, trauma/acute care surgery clinical nurse specialist, spoke to the students at Walter Reed Bethesda, encouraging them to use their time wisely in preparing for their future.

Throughout their day at WRNMMC, the students shadowed nurses in various areas of the hospital, including getting hands-on training in simulated patient care, participating in activities in the medical center’s in the state-of-the-art simulation center at Walter Reed Bethesda.

• Date Taken: 05.14.2019
• Date Posted: 05.21.2019 14:19
• Story ID: 323276
• Location: BETHESDA, MD, US