Army Nurse Corps Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Lessons Learned

ABSTRACT A new strain of coronavirus (COVID-19) emerged in 2020 changing the way the nation looked, worked and lived. In response to this unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, the Army Nurse Corps (ANC) reexamined our capabies and agility to respond to a new and rapidly evolving environment. Maintaining the pivot to readiness, providing sustainable support and protecting our most valuable asset-our people-were and continues to be in the forefront of leaders’ thoughts as we faced this invisible adversary. With every new challenge, lessons learned provide an opportunity to re-examine challenges and successes of the response to COVID-19. Organizational restructuring, balancing risks, expanding capabilities and educational platforms were reassessed and adjusted to fill the needs of the environment as they evolved. The year 2020 will stand throughout history as another example where our readiness, resilience, and flexibility as an Army Nurse Corps was tried and tested. We demonstrated our ability to adapt and overcome-displaying our willingness to stand up as part of the Army Medicine Team and face an unknown adversary to protect the nation we vowed to serve.

The army nurse practitioner transition to practice program

The Army Nurse Corps established a Transition to Practice Program (TPP) to better position Army NPs to excel in complex clinical environments. The purpose of the TPP was to provide a structured educational transition to clinical practice for new graduate Advance Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs). A small pilot (test-of-change) was conducted at two Army hospitals. The results of the pilot indicated that length of time was the most important factor for the program. Findings during this pilot implementation were limited, but provide great insight into revising the program in order to produce skilled and confident Army APRNs.

The Politics of Intimate Care

This chapter traces the early evolution of nursing from the mid-nineteenth century through the early twentieth century, with particular emphasis on how nursing care became both gendered and racialized in civilian society. Focusing on the history of the Army Nurse Corps (ANC), it explores the relationship between the military and civilian populace to illuminate trends in nursing practices, debates about work, and concerns about war taking place in the larger civil society. It also examines how war and military nursing needs shaped the evolution of the modern nursing profession and how nursing became embroiled in the politics of intimate care, along with the implications for gender roles and race relations that permeated social relationships and interactions in civilian society. The chapter points to the Civil War as the transformative moment in the history of nursing in the United States, moving nursing from an unpaid obligation to a paid occupation. Finally, it discusses the impact of the introduction of formal nurse training during the last quarter of the nineteenth century on African American nurses.