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A ship’s medical department is a complicated, interwoven group of people with different responsibilities dedicated to the health and wellbeing of the crew. Ranging from the ship’s nurse to the enlisted corpsman the medical administration, everyone has a purpose and a mission to complete.
Lt. Cmdr. Lauren Clark has been the ship’s nurse aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN71) since May 2022. Like many aircraft carrier nurses, Clark has experience working in an intensive care unit and has experience with mobile damage control surgical teams, sometimes referred to as Role Two Light Maneuver or Expeditionary Resuscitative Surgical Systems.
This experience brings important skills to the team, especially when it comes to a hospital functioning in the middle of the ocean and potentially in hostile territories. As the ship’s nurse, Clark focuses on training hospital corpsman to give the most effective and highest quality care possible. The ship’s general crew also receives basic medical training.
“The primary focus of the crew’s medical training is in provision of battlefield medicine,” said Clark. “This means ensuring the crew knows how to care for their shipmates while further medical care is in route.”
Theodore Roosevelt’s medical department trains hard every day, so they have the capabilities to handle potential medical emergencies and any other issues that may arise while at sea. They are trained to assess the situation and employ critical thinking when considering a patient’s medical situation and their immediate treatment process.
“In a traditional hospital setting, the roles and responsibilities between nurses and corpsman are more formalized,” said Clark. “But, in an operational setting, single points of failure are a luxury we can’t afford. On Theodore Roosevelt, we train and expect our corpsman to deliver care to the highest extent of their capability.”
Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Laquisha Byrd, from Manassas, Virginia, is an independent duty corpsman (IDC) aboard Theodore Roosevelt and has been with the ship for over two years. As a subject matter expert of the hospital corpsman rating, Byrd serves as a representative of medical department and is involved in multiple healthcare procedures onboard.
“The IDC has long been a mainstay in the operational Navy,” said Byrd. “We see our crews when they are feeling their best and feeling their worst. We are healers, counselors and shipmates. We have the ear of our commanding officer and the pulse of the crew.”
Byrd interacts with the ship’s nurse regularly both within medical department and during shipboard medical training evolutions. The Medical department prepared for deployment using real life scenarios to prepare for any possible emergencies, Byrd was there with them to provide supervision and guidance.
With 12.5 years of military service, Byrd has the experience and knowledge needed to assist and train the medical department to being as capable as possible. With guidance from officers like Clark, hospital corpsmen are trained to be ready and able to handle any emergency that is thrown their way.
Lt. Jesse Thomas is another experienced officer aboard Theodore Roosevelt with 14 years of service, seven of which have been as a medical service corps officer. As the medical administration officer aboard the ship, he works with the medical team to coordinate medical evacuations with shore facilities, maintain oversight of the overall equipment and supply, and administer day-to-day operations on behalf of the senior medical officer.
“Upon arrival, I found very capable subject matter experts, both officer and enlisted,” said Thomas. “My role here is to provide short and long-term planning to help guide our department. Nonetheless, due to their level of knowledge, I serve more as a resource than a manager.”
Thomas worked alongside the rest of the medical team to prepare the department for deployment. As with any task, the medical team may face any variety of issues over the course of Theodore Roosevelt’s time at sea. Medical department is faced with a variety of potential issues, such as the possibility of being unable to contact their consulting specialists, being out of range for medical evacuations, and inevitably any unforeseen casualties.
In order to best combat those issues, the team works to have integrated support teams with embarked squadrons, train the crew to respond accordingly, train for unique cases, and keep their electronic records up to date so they have as much information as possible to utilize as a resource.
Although they each take different approaches to healthcare, everyone involved in Theodore Roosevelt’s medical department is ultimately dedicated to one thing: providing the best care possible at anytime, anywhere in the world. Working together as one cohesive unit, the medical team strives to keep Sailors safe and be on the scene whenever they are needed.
| Date Taken: | 02.01.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 03.21.2024 03:02 |
| Story ID: | 466714 |
| Location: | PHILIPPINE SEA |
| Web Views: | 37 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Care at Sea, by PO3 Jadyn Beavers, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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