Page 3 - Nellis Creech NTTR Bullseye 3-25-16

BULLSEYE
www.aerotechnews.com/nellisafb
CHOI, from page 1 _____________
her family and the sacrifices her mother
made for the family.
“In the Asian and Korean cultures we
are very family centered,” said Choi. “You
get a lot of inspirations and motivation
from your family. A lot of my motivation
to be successful came from my mother, Ja
Yeon, and my older sister, Lucy. My older
sister is very intelligent and she really
tried to give me her thoughts on how I
should be and what I could do.”
“My mother is 78 years old so when
we just talk about the older generation
of mothers in the Asian culture the girls
are influenced so much by the mother
because we are so close together,” said
Choi. “You kind of learn things from
the life experience from the mom. They
always sacrifice themselves and really
don’t have their life. They sacrifice their
ambitions in order to raise the children
and to support the husband. They do
everything for the family.”
“I didn’t want to live that way,” said
Choi. “I wanted to build a life of my own
and chase after my own dreams. I knew
that I needed a good profession to be able
to accomplish this so I started asking my-
self, ‘What can I do to support myself?’”
Choi wasn’t sure on what she wanted to
choose as a career but knew that she needed
to further her education to reach her goals.
“I started attending college in Korea,”
said Choi. “I first went to school for interior
design butmysisterencouraged me to come
to the U.S. and experience what the U.S. had
to offer. She encouraged me to see what the
world had to offer outside of Korea.”
“I started coming to the U.S for short
trips and it was a different from anything
that I had seen in Korea,” said Choi. “I
loved it and started to learn English.”
The desire and vision that she had to
have a career that would allow her sup-
port herself came to fruition when her
sister convinced her to look at attending
nursing school. In 1999, Choi took a leap
of faith and permanently moved to the
U.S. so that she could pursue her dreams
of having a career.
“I didn’t really think about being a
nurse until my sisters talked to me about
how good of a job it was in the U.S., I
thought, ‘Maybe that would be my per-
fect job,’” said Choi.
She was accepted and enrolled in the
nursing program at the College of the
Desert in Palm Desert, California but
faced some unique challenges that most
other nursing students don’t.
“When I was in nursing school I
wasn’t really good with English,” said
Choi. “The language barrier was the big-
gest challenge for me. I could read and
write English but I couldn’t speak it or
comprehend the listening part very well.
I had to put a lot of effort into my studies
to pass. Everything was a new word for
me. Luckily, I had a lot of support from
my professors and classmates and I was
able to get through it pretty well.”
It didn’t take long for Choi to realize
Feature
U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Nathan Byrnes problems.
that nursing was a passion of hers.
“It was during my clinical rotations
when I realized that this was really some-
thing that I wanted to do,” said Choi. “I
did my clinical rotation at Desert Re-
gional Medical Center in Palm Springs,
California. I rotated with a trauma ICU
and I got to shadow all the nurses. I re-
ally loved talking to the patients and I
was really impressed and shocked with
how professional the nurses were and the
amount of knowledge they had. It really
made me want to be a nurse.”
After nursing school, Choi and her
family moved to Los Angeles where she
worked two full-time jobs as a nurse and
as a teacher at a nursing school to help
support her family.
“I was physically and mentally ex-
hausted,” said Choi. “I was working six
days a week and I rarely got to see my kids
and husband. I only had one day off and
sometimes I didn’t even have a day off.
“One day at work, a family of a pa-
tient of mine who was retired Navy told
me that I should look into joining the
military,” said Choi. “They talked to me
about how good of an opportunity it
would be for me.”
“I began researching what the military
had to offer and saw the benefits that it
could provide for me and my family,” said
Choi. “My husband served in the South
Korean air force and he was all for me
joining. He was very supportive and even
quit his job to take care of the home and
children so that I could pursue my career.”
“After I joined the military everything
started to work out,” said Choi. “I only
have to work three to four days a week
now. The first year when I joined the mili-
tary I remember my kids coming up to me
and saying, ‘Mom, how come you don’t go
to work anymore?’ They were so used to
seeing me work all day all the time.”
“Now I only work about half the days
I used to work. I have more time to spend
with my kids so that really works out per-
fectly for me. I really enjoy the extra time I
get to spend with my husband and kids and
we are able to talk more and get along more.”
As a mother of two, it was a welcomed
change of pace for Choi.
“Before joining the military, I was
Capt. Min Choi, 99th
Inpatient Operation
Squadron clinical nurse in
the critical care unit, poses in
front of the critical care unit
sign at the Mike O’Callaghan
Federal Medical Center
at Nellis Air Force Base,
Nev., March 17. Critical care
nursing is a complex and
challenging nurse specialty
to which many registered
nurses aspire. Also known
as intensive care unit nurses,
critical care nurses use their
advanced skills to care for
patients who are at high risk
for life-threatening health
working so much that I didn’t even get
to ask my kids how they were feeling,
what was going on at in their lives and
how things were going at school,” said
Choi. “I barely got to see my husband.
Family means everything to me so that
was really hard. The military is much
more family oriented and has allowed
me to spend more time with my family
which means a lot.
Since coming to Nellis AFB Choi has
been the embodiment of the Air Force
core values and has been a great leader
and mentor to the people she works with.
“She is very driven and very smart,”
said Maj. Leila Pasignajen, 99th IPTS
flight commander of the critical care
unit. “She is passionate with her care and
everything is always on time. Patients
never miss their medications. As a charge
nurse, she makes sure all her nurses meet
all their patients’ needs. She is on top of
everything. Her decision making skills,
judgement, leadership and knowledge are
what make her such an asset to the team.”
“When there is a ‘Code Blue’ she is
always there grabbing the bag and going
where she is needed and training new
nurses how to handle the situation. She
doesn’t hesitate to speak up when she sees
things that could be improved. She is a
little person with a very strong voice.”
Recently, Choi became the director of
the peripherally inserted central catheter
program. Nellis AFB is the only base that
has a registered nurse led PICC program.
Also, Nellis AFB is the only base to have
the joint Veterans Affairs Hospital and
Air Force PICC team.
A PICC line is a long, thin, flexible
tube used to give medicines, fluids, nu-
trients, or blood products over a long
period of time, usually several weeks or
more. A specially trained nurse or doctor
will use an ultrasound machine to find
the veins in one’s upper arm and insert
the PICC line. A catheter is threaded
through this vein until it reaches a large
vein near the heart.
Patients benefit from the use of a PICC
because it has less risk for infection and
has a high patient satisfaction rate. Also, it the journey has been a long and strenuous
is very cost effective and saves the hospital
resources that can be utilized in other ways.
3March 25, 2016
Facebook.com/NellisBullseye
Choi has been instrumental in further
strengthening the ties between Nellis
AFB and the VA by heading up this pro-
gram and training nurses so they can in
turn also work at the VA.
Another part that makes Choi such
a great nurse is her caring personality
and genuine love of people are additional
features that make her a great nurse.
“I enjoy interacting with the patients,”
said Choi. “My philosophy as a nurse is to
treat my patients like my family should
be treated or how I would want to be
treated. When you think that way your
patient feels that.”
“Nothing is more rewarding than see-
ing a patient that you took care of who
was so sick come up to you weeks later,
looking like a totally different person,
and say ‘Hey Min, I was your patient do
you remember me? Thank you for taking
care of me during that rough time,’’ said
Choi. “Seeing them completely healthy
makes it all worthwhile.”
“Working in the critical care unit
you don’t see a positive outcome 100
percent of the time so having former
patients come up to you and thanking
you is very rewarding,” said Choi. “You
do everything you can to try and rescue
all your patients, but sometimes it just
doesn’t work out. It hurts my heart
when that happens, but that’s part of
the job.”
Choi is grateful for the opportunity
that was awarded to her in coming to the
U.S. and pursuing her dreams. Always
looking for a way to volunteer and give
back to those who are less fortunate, she
devotes her spare time as a remote area
medical clinic volunteer. The RAM pro-
gram treats more than 900 patients over
a three to four day span.
“First of all, it’s a community service,”
said Choi. “I serve the hospital and I’m
paid for that, but I feel that you need to
serve the community and help those
who can’t afford medical treatment. I
didn’t start volunteering until I joined
the military. I saw a lot of organizations
that work with the homeless and people
who don’t have insurance and provide
free medical care to these individuals. I
feel honored and it’s very rewarding to
be a part of these organizations and help
these people.”
Choi says that her method to success
revolves around using her time wisely,
setting goals and taking the steps neces-
sary to achieve those goals.
“If you do nothing, time still goes,”
said Choi. “If you do something, time
still goes. Why are you wasting your
time? Use that time to do things that will
help you achieve the goal that you have
set for yourself.”
Choi has taken the road less traveled to
get to where she is at today and even though
one, it is a journey that is far from its last
chapter. She will be embarking on the next
chapter in her life by pursuing her doctorate
degree this summer as she was accepted into
the Doctor of Nursing Practice program.