Joint En-route Care Course (JECC)

The Army technically doesn't have "flight nurses", that is the Air Force. But over the last few years, some nurses, doctors, and anesthesiologists have been sent on rotary wings to help evacuate patients from the combat hospitals and point of injury. This course was designed to help the nurses/doc work with flight medics and learn the trade of flying with patients. I didn't know I was going until about 1.5 week prior to report date. Of course, hurry up and wait.

This is the awesome car I got for the 2 week course. Loved driving it. I almost want one. Almost.

The course was held at Fort Rucker, Alabama- home of aviation. I stayed at the Hampton Inn with 34 others that were in the course. We had awesome breakfasts and went out to eat every night. There is some pretty good food in the area, mostly fried though. The first week was mostly didactic and familiarization. The second week was the run phase of the course, which included riding in a Chinook and starting IVs and doing patient assessments, testing of the reading material, and a simulation of riding in a helicopter with a "live" manikin.

Some of the group at Mellow Mushroom, a fun little pizza and sub restaurant.

On the weekend, Nicole (a friend from my critical care nurse course) and I went down to Panama City to play in the sand. It was cold, of course. We just wanted to see the ocean.

We went to Hunt's Oyster Bar where I ate my first oyster and met these fun older men. This guy and his best buddy holding the cash spend about $600 a piece at this bar on oysters and beer. He is a millionaire (that doesn't look it) who gets his cash is booklets of one's, five's, ten's dollar bills. They taught us how to really eat oysters. It was fun.

We had a survival training course. I learned to make a hole in the ground fire. I started the fire too. This picture is completely posed. Good times.

In front of our Chinook. I got the biggest hematoma on my arm from the IV stick. I didn't really get air sick either, which is a shock.

The course overall was fun and I learned a lot because it was challenging. Rotary wings is a different environment when you consider your hearing and vision senses are lost.