Photo By Petty Officer 3rd Class Meagan Christoph | 191125-N-XT693-006 NAVAL HOSPITAL BREMERTON, Wash. (Nov. 25, 2019) Hospital Corpsman...... read more read more
“I am Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class James Gibbens, assigned to Naval Hospital Bremerton.”
Gibbens, from Beaverton, Ore., graduated from Jesuit High School in 2009 and initially had Navy Medicine brought to his attention when he was enlisting in the Navy eight years ago.
“I wanted to join the military to serve my country,” said Gibbens. “I was originally going to join as an undesignated seaman, however, my chief told me I could be a corpsman. I looked up what corpsmen do and I knew I wanted it.”
Gibbens is serving as leading petty officer (LPO) of preventative medicine at Branch Health Clinic Bangor (BHEC).
Prior to serving at BHEC, Gibbens served as a work center supervisor of medical readiness on the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) and as the LPO of preventative medicine at Naval Hospital Bremerton (NHB).
While serving aboard Nimitz, Gibbens deployed to the Arabian Gulf and enjoyed the opportunity for port call stops to India, Bahrain, and United Arab Emirates (UAE). He explained that the deployment was the most exciting assignment that he has been on as part of Navy Medicine, which included handling additional responsibility.
“When I was on the USS Nimitz I was able to be a part of the preplanning medical phases of deployment,” said Gibbens. “The senior medical officer wanted me to help with the planning for each country. Each country needed specific vaccinations provided to the service members before they could leave the ship. We also had to ensure everyone had their Anthrax vaccinations before we were able to enter U.S. 5th Fleet Area of Responsibility.”
When asked what has been the best part of his career in Navy Medicine, Gibbens said the knowledge and skills he gained while deployed was at the top of the list.
“My best part of my career so far was being on the deployment with the USS Nimitz,” said Gibbens. “Times were rough, but the crew we had made the time fly by and made the experience worth it.”
He describes his training in preventative medicine as being fulfilling and exciting to know he is educating civilians and Sailors about being healthy and what to do to avoid getting sick.
“There's a lot more to medicine that people don't understand,” explained Gibbens, noting that as a preventive medicine technician he helps to identify, evaluate, monitor, and respond to disease, injuries, and environmental factors that threaten the health of his Sailors and Marines.
“It's a nice part of being a corpsman and especially at preventative medicine just to help people understand the public health side of it,” added Gibbens. “There's so many things that we can do to help prevent anyone from getting sick. Like training. We do various educational classes for the Marines, for the Army guys, for the ships, all that fun stuff. We go onboard ships and do inspections for them to ensure that they're ready to pull into port. That's our whole purpose.”
Gibbens’ explained that his role as LPO of preventative medicine focuses on public health and contributes to the Navy surgeon general priority on operational readiness in many ways.
“We need our Sailors and Marines to be healthy,” said Gibbens. “Non-healthy service members can’t contribute to the team effectively. Our goal is to have as many service members as possible stay healthy and ready to fight.”
| Date Taken: | 12.01.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 12.04.2019 10:31 |
| Story ID: | 354232 |
| Location: | BREMERTON , WA, US |
| Web Views: | 345 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, I am Navy Medicine: Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class James Gibbens, by PO3 Meagan Christoph, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
LEAVE A COMMENT