Photo By Douglas Stutz | tuning into hearing assessment training… U.S. Navy Lt. Jeffrey Osborn, physician...... read more read more
As the effort to help stop the spread of COVID-19 continues, a Navy physician assistant (PA) is also supporting care for COVID-19 caregiver’s health, wellness and resilience needs.
For Lt. Jeffrey E. Osborn, assigned to Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command (NMRTC) Bremerton’s, the ongoing pandemic outbreak has him helping maintain the warfighting capability of commands in the third largest fleet concentration, as well as provide resources for the command’s healthcare workers.
“The current pandemic has caused massive social upheaval and levels of stress only comparable to multiple deployments. People are having difficulty finding child care and balancing work, parental duties and even fulfilling the role of teachers,” said Osborn, who has taken the lead to chair NMRTC Bremerton’s Provider Wellness/Impaired Provider Prevention Program.
According to Osborn, attached to NMRTC Bremerton’s Branch Health Clinic Bangor, the goal of the program is to ensure patient safety while acting as an advocate for credentialed healthcare providers.
“As with all functions at the hospital, our number one goal is always improving patient safety. In this care prevention, early identification, treatment and rehabilitation of possibly impaired healthcare providers is the focus,” Osborn said.
The program is a Defense Health Agency requirement and is comprised of multiple professions such as credentialed provider, mental health and nursing staff representative(s).
There’s a number of services that can be provided, including mental health, substance abuse rehabilitation referrals, even help with work schedule issues for someone struggling with significant life events.
“We act as a voice of advocacy for staff. Our program provides routine information on building resiliency with a goal of prevention of impairment. Additionally, we focus on early identification and treatment always with the goal of rehabilitation and return to clinical duties,” stated Osborn, adding that the program routinely reaches out to the medical community with discussions and briefs on a regular basis, such as sharing during new provider orientation and during the occasional medical staff meetings.
“Now more than ever it is critical that we work together as peers to provide support and feel comfortable checking in with each other to make sure that none of us are struggling in silence,” Osborn stressed. “Medical providers in particular tend to downplay their own problems trying to focus on providing care. It is up to us to look out for each other.”
As Navy Medicine continues to respond to the pandemic’s lingering impact physical, mental and emotional impacts with a ready medical force ensuring there’s a medical ready force, the added responsibilities have led to concerns about burn-out and complacency.
“Healthcare workers are especially impacted by this as they fill a critical role on the front lines of addressing the pandemic. This has put increased stress on our staff as they work to provide critical care to our community while accepting increased risk of exposure and the fear of potentially spreading of the virus to family and friends,” stated Osborn.
For Osborn, a Sacramento, California native, the path to his current positon has been based more on the journey than the actual destination. Although the Pacific Northwest has made a lasting positive impression.
“I enjoy my time as a Navy provider. The job has unique challenges and opportunities that my civilian peers never get to experience. As someone who has been active duty with a long break in between periods of service, I can safely say that there is no place that has a similar sense of community and camaraderie as the military. The friendships and experiences will truly last a lifetime,” exclaimed Osborn, noting that being able to engage in operational medicine – whether in the field or at sea – offers unique challenges in distinctive settings unlike any typical hospital and clinic environment.
Navy Medicine has taken Osborn far afield, across the Pacific and Indian Oceans, from the arid African coastline of Djibouti to the tropical jungles of Sri Lanka. He also deployed in support of Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve and provided an array of medical care to joint and Coalition service members in Iraq and Syria
Yet well before his current role, Osborn joined the Army after graduating in 1999 from Elk Grove High School. He served as an airborne infantryman for four years, then diligently worked as an emergency medical technician and earned his Bachelors of Science degree in Medical Microbiology from University of California, Davis. He followed up by graduating from Touro University California with a dual Master of Public Health and Master of PA studies in 2013. He joined the Navy as a direct accession soon after.
“While in PA school I spent a considerable amount of time trying to decide where to practice and the kind of patient population to treat,” Osborn related. “I wanted to serve again after an almost 10 years break. I spoke with medical recruiters from all the military branches and was impressed with the chief hospital corpsman that I worked with. I was interested in the large scope of Navy Medicine encompassing both the blues side as well as the green side working with Sailors and Marines.”
As a physician assistant, Osborn works hand-in-hand with supervising physicians and surgeons, and is proficient in areas such as emergency medicine and family practice, along with handling primary care issues and overseeing other members of the medical team such as hospital corpsmen. Working with those hospital corpsmen is the best part of his job.
“The PA profession was born out of the hospital corpsman rate. Many current corpsmen and medics are the future of the PA community. Corpsmen are the first link in the chain of survival following trauma or injury in operational environments,” said Osborn.
Osborn’s role as a Navy PA is also part of that chain of survival, from training corpsmen to providing care to those in need with the Provider Wellness/Impaired Provider Prevention Program.
| Date Taken: | 11.03.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 11.03.2020 16:46 |
| Story ID: | 382317 |
| Location: | BREMERTON, WASHINGTON, US |
| Web Views: | 184 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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