Page 24 - QARANC Vol 14 No 9 2014

22 QARANC THE GAZETTE
The life and times of a nursing officer in a field hospital
I was posted into 22 Field Hospital
in June 2013 having spent the first
4.5 years of my Army career at an
MDHU, DMRC Headley Court or
conducting postgraduate study.
A combination of trepidation and excitement filled me when I received my assignment order. I was delighted to be posted to my first field unit but also nervous with anticipation of the unexpected.
My role within the unit is primarily as Troop Commander, with the additional responsibility of coordinating all clinical placements for CMTs, nurses and AHPs. Within my first 2 weeks in post I was thrown into the unit athletics team to compete in the Corps championships, which was the ideal opportunity to get to know the troops. I even managed to win a silver medal in the 800m, which faded in comparison with Pte Tara Burns who swept up in the sprinting events. This was shortly followed by a 2-week detachment with 1 Med Regt to provide med cover at the annual Nijmegen marches in Holland. Field units receive frequent trawls for all trades for a vast array of tasks all over the world. We have deployed troops to Somalia, Germany, Jordan and Cyprus to name a few, in the past year.
22 Field Hospital has been the Very High Readiness (VHR) now known as Op VANGUARD Field Hospital since April ’13 so much of our time is spent maintaining the vast amount of
kit we hold and conducting validation exercises. My first experience of this was in Oct last year providing a demo of our capability at the Land Component Power Visit on Salisbury Plain to students at ICSC and ACSS. Ex JORVIK LOOK 4 followed immediately when we deployed our sea deliverable hospital, which expands from 12 beds up to 48 beds if required. The exercise was a huge success with good integration with the Individual Augmentees (IA’s) who were a
combination of regular and reserve personnel.
In November I attended the CBRN Clinical course at
Winterbourne Gunner, which led me into the role of instructor, and DS on our unit CBRN exercise, the first of its kind to exercise the decontamination drills of the VANGUARD Hospital. 33 Field Hospital also joined us for this exercise as they assume the role at the end of the year. Everyone felt the benefit of the exercise and would be much more comfortable now if we had to deploy to an area with a CBRN threat.
In November I took a unit team, albeit 2 of us, to the AMS Snowboarding Training Camp and Championships in Neustift, Austria. I have snowboarded for several years but it was the first time Pte White had ever been on a board. The camp consists of a week of tuition followed by a week of Corps races and free boarding time. The work and effort to coordinate a team for such an event is always worth it in the end when you see how happy the soldiers are to be there. Pte White returned full of enthusiasm for the sport which has not wavered and I look forward to taking him again later this year. I am not sure I will be as successful in bringing home 2 gold medals in the female events again but I will return to defend my titles in November.
One of the main challenges in a field unit is maintaining clinical competence. The minimum of 2 weeks clinical work every 6 months sounds very achievable however it is surprising how quickly that time fills up between courses, exercise, unit commitments and annual leave. I have managed to achieve my CPD by doing BATLS and a Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases course at Fort Blockhouse. Both courses have proved invaluable for both VHR and my ED specialty. I have a Licence to Practice at Frimley Park Hospital and so strive to do 2 shifts per month to keep current; doing more