Becoming a military nurse takes selfless dedication and requires you to put yourself in the line of danger. When I was only 23 years old, I was deployed to Iraq with just a three-day warning. Working in a tent field hospital, I was immediately thrown into the realities of providing patient care in a war zone. Without always having the necessary supplies or a sterile environment, it required us to think on our feet and get creative with how to provide the best possible care to combat injured, critically ill soldiers and Iraqi nationals. The times we weren’t treating patients, we would read textbooks and talk with each other throughout the night to learn as much as we could to do the very best for our patients. Through our camaraderie and dedication to the brave men and women who served, we gave it our all—but we also learned more than we ever thought possible.
Over my 20-year career with the U.S. Army, I went wherever duty called: from a humanitarian mission in Rwanda to military health facilities across America. My time in the service was challenging, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. It was an incredible opportunity that more nursing students should consider pursuing, particularly amidst the severe nurse shortage our military branches and the Department of Defense (DOD) now face. But in order to attract new nurses to the workforce, the federal government must better support and incentivize the nurses who are literally on the frontline.
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Though my deployments came with harrowing experiences, I found my time in Iraq and Rwanda extremely valuable as it made me a better nurse and a better advocate for patients. It helped me build my confidence and made me realize that nurses are the backbone of the healthcare delivery system – ever present, on our feet and using our well-trained minds to react and save lives. Most of us can handle anything thrown our way. It’s a challenging, rewarding, and gratifying career, and often exhilarating and adventurous. I now teach and recommend to all my students to explore military nursing.
According to a recent report, 88% of Department of Defense facilities have nursing shortages. This startling statistic shows just how severe the shortage really is. A tight labor market, noncompetitive pay, and a challenging hiring process were some of the leading factors contributing to the shortage.
If we have any hope of solving this crisis, we must look to the nursing pipeline. The Department of Defense must create better incentives to attract new nurses to the field and retain nurses currently in the military. That means enhancing pay and benefits, providing better physical and mental health resources and support, creating efficient processes to expedite the hiring process, and ensuring that students are academically prepared to earn their nursing degree. We also must support students before they enter nursing programs to make the transition less financially burdensome. The DOD should increase scholarship opportunities for interested students, helping to remove financial barriers to becoming a military nurse.
When you are a military nurse, you’re not just a clinical professional, you are also a soldier. Those roles take sacrifice, resilience, and courage. I urge leaders and policymakers to consider solutions to the crisis, including creating better incentives that will bolster the pipeline of students pursuing careers as military nurses. The health of our service members and their families depends on it.
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DeAnna M. Hutchings, MSN-Ed, CNML, CCRN is the ADN Associate Director at Galen College of Nursing in San Antonio, Texas, and a United States Army Nurse Corps (Ret) veteran.
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