The Vietnam War has significant impacts on health care system, recruiting system, and nurses.
The war promoted the development of health services in military situations. Vietnam was very dangerous because this was the first time that there were people sabotaging at any time. Whether nurses were on the planes, ships or battlefields, they witnessed and participated in an evolution in trauma and combat casualty care. Rapid evacuation, readily available blood, well-established hospitals, advanced surgical techniques, and nursing management all combined to keep the wounded from dying. More specifically, “the rapid evacuation system for the wounded saved many lives that would have been lost in previous wars. Causalities from the battlefield could arrive at hospital receiving wards within minutes of injury” [1]. For example, each air force nurse carried dozens of wounded soldiers through the aircraft doors on bloodied ponchos or litters. She checked the snugness of their dressings to make sure that no one hemorrhaged during the short flight. She joked with patients who reacted to their injuries [2]. Many nurses
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It broadened the nurses’ sense of the world, and “it is a crucible of humanity in which participants are given the opportunities to witness and understand extremes in human behavior” [5]. Nurses realized that the world lives like this the terrible poverty and the war all around them. They learned to live and work with people of different ages, religions, sexual orientations, and races [6]. On the other hand, many nurses suffered mental trauma after leaving Vietnam. Many of nurses suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder [7]. Numerous nurses experienced flashbacks and reminders of things they wished to forget. When military nurses came back, they were “viewed by many as a murderer instead of a healer, felt isolated and angry”. Nurses have to deal with a lifetime of sadness, loss, and pressure in one
According to celebrating the nurses of Vietnam “Combat nurses worked twelve hour shifts six days a week and when a mass casualty incident occurred, like a major battle, those twelve hour shifts could easily turn into twenty-four to thirty-six hour shifts.” The nurses would work like crazy and weren't appreciated by the people.Questions like did they have to fight,what were the surgeries that they had to do ,and how fast did the nurses have to get to work is the topic of the paper.
On March 15, 1965, large shipments of troops arrived in South Vietnam. These troops occupied the country until 1973. During this time, many men fought and died for the United States of America. The numerous nurses that operated on thousands of soldiers are often forgotten. The soldiers that the nurses operated on were usually blown apart and crippled for life. The nurses worked diligently to save these men. Even by working hard to save these men they were not recognized as army personnel by the public. The Vietnamese citizens and even the male American soldiers looked down upon the nurses. The United States did not acknowledge the nurses that served in the Vietnam War until 1993. The nurses
The overall topic of this reach looked into the trauma that women have received from our current wars. This includes war and sexual trauma which developed into post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) of the female veterans of the Vietnam war. The article used data from the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study which looked at 396 in Vietnam theater women and 250 Vietnam era women. Each one of these females where analyzed using structural equation modeling. The research does lead to the conclusion for post war trauma and sexual trauma is a major factor to how post-traumatic stress disorder in females of post-Vietnam can form. What brought this research on was the female nurses that returned from Vietnam and started to report medical
Both World War II (1939-1945) and the Vietnam War (1955-1975) were times where great advances were made in medical care, in fact the Vietnam War is said to have had the best medical care in the history of warfare. In particular, the evacuation techniques and medical treatments in both wars proved to have a substantial effect on the soldiers. Throughout this report we will be examining the techniques used throughout WWII in comparison to those in the Vietnam War, so that we can hopefully gain a better understanding of the medical differences and/or similarities used in the warfare.
During the period of the war, nurses had to work “closer to the front lines than the ever had before.” The film shows that most of the nurses served on or near the dangerous battlefields such as “field hospitals and evacuation hospitals, on hospital trains and hospital ships, and as flight nurses on medical transport planes.” Nurses were doing patient care; they handled patients and assisted doctors. “18 nurses were assigned to a field hospital, which could handle 75 to 150 patients.” Also, fewer than 4 percent of the U.S. soldiers who received treatment in the field or underwent evacuation died from wounds or disease. Nurses’ service at the front significantly contributed to the U.S military’s success in the WWII. Hence, the advertisements describe nurses as a respected role in the
When Americans speak about the Iraq war, they mention the number of soldiers, the number of casualties, and the enemy that we fought. People fail to recognize the importance of the “Angels of the battlefield”, the nurses. Nurses were a crucial piece of our military because they cared for our wounded soldiers. This, in turn, reduced the number of casualties as a cause of the war. For my research paper, I will find the effects of the Iraq war on Nurses. I will speak on the roles and experiences of nurses during and after the Iraq war during 2003 all the way to 2011. I will first speak on the different roles that nurses had. This will include the different levels of modern combat care, and statistics about the nurses. Next, I will examine the experiences that the nurses had
Throughout history there has been war, war to gain territory, war to gain obedience over one nation to another and war to see who the superior Army is. With every war there is medical staff on standby ready to tend to the wounded and get them back in the fight. Up until the First World War the evacuation of wounded personnel was usually done by horseback or whatever means readily available, and the wounded almost never survived. In my discussion I will show you how evacuations went from obsolete into what we know today. I will provide to you the facts and findings through my research in the evolution of medevac teams and how it has helped shape the roles of war.
The duties of the army nurses were much more varied than would have been the case in the civilian nursing profession.
After World War II, the health care system expanded and was nationalized with medicare. Currently there are 260,000 nurses in Canada but they face the same difficulties as most countries, as technology advances and the aging population requires more nursing care.
The soldier’s shallow breathing soon stops, and she places a sheet over his body. This was the worst part of the job. She hated losing a patient, but she knew it was bound to. These men were shooting guns at each other; someone was bound to get killed by a bullet. She turns to another nurse, and asks for a small break. They were so close to the enemy’s territory that many nurses didn’t step outside of the tent. Horror stories of nurses getting attacked or stolen were floating around the camps.
In “Medicine on The Battlefield” from http://www.ncpedia.org/wwi-medicine-battlefield John Campbell describes modern techniques military hospitals use and medicine used today. Stretchers are used to transport the injured soldiers to the places they need to go. Lieutenant Andrew Green wrote to friends in Raleigh explaining the story of how the stretcher-bearers carried him over one mile through enemy
Throughout the years, the practice of American nursing has gone through extensive significant changes. Nursing evolved from an unrecognizable profession to a recognizable and respectable career choice for women. After World War II, nurses had to transition from working in private homes to working in public hospitals. There was a dire need for nurses in the hospitals because of the different communicable diseases that were around. In addition, “the rise of feminism in the 1960’s influenced public attitudes toward women, their work, and education.” In Susan Gelfand Malka’s Daring to Care: American Nursing and Second-Wave Feminism, she analyzed that second-wave feminism gravely impacted the nursing education and practice. The public
The nurse explored in this essay is registered nurse, midwife and child health care nurse Ellen Savage. Savage joined the Australian Army Nursing Service in early 1941, here she served in the Australian General Hospital in Concord, Sydney (Gendek, 2007; Prior, 2013). March of 1942, Savage was posted to board the Australian Hospital ship the Centaur where she would collect injured service men from Papua New Guinea (Daly, Speedy & Jackson, n.d.; Gendek, 2007). Early morning of the 14th of May the Centaur was hit by a torpedo from a Japanese submarine causing the ship to sink in under three minutes (Gendek, 2007; Prior, 2013). Ellen was the only nurse to survive the attack, however she did obtain severe injuries of her own including fractured ribs, fractured nose and palate, perforated eardrums and multiple bruising including a badly bruised eye (Daly, Speedy & Jackson, n.d.; Gendek, 2007; Prior, 2013). Ellen Savage worked selflessly and ceaselessly throughout the rapid destruction of the vessel regardless of her own injuries, rationing little food and water that was available as well as providing any care she could manage to the survivors suffering from burns, fractures open wounds and preparing burials for those that died (Gendek, 2007). Ellen Savage continued to serve in the Australian Army Nursing Service at the Australian General Hospital for 4 years following the ordeal ending her army service on the 6th of February 1946 (Gendek, 2007). Nurse Savage decided to further
In war many people get injured. Back during the civil war there was nothing they could do any many died of their wounds or infections. Since then our doctors and Army branches have worked hard to develop new tactics for treating wounds on the battle grounds, “Since 2005, field hospitals also have employed continuous venovenous hemofiltration, a short-term emergency dialysis treatment reducing the incidence of pulmonary edema and respiratory failure among burn victims, many of whom previously had been given too much saline fluid during resuscitation (Defense
Whether they were ill due to poor conditions or from battle, doctors and nurses worked around the clock. If soldiers became sick while marching they were left behind. One soldier wrote, “Many became ill from exposure and starvation, and were left on the road. The ambulances were full, and the whole route was marked with a sick” (soldiers). A doctor told his wife about the days after a battle, “How awful it is -you have not can have until you see it any idea of affairs after a battle. The dead appear sickening but they suffer no pain. But the poor wounded mutilated soldiers that yet have life and sensation make a most horrid picture” (soldiers). Medical staff were not supplied with the pain medicine they required to keep patients comfortable. One soldier requested his wife send him some pain medicine, “If you get a chance to send me anything, send me some cider put up in bottles, and some apples and a little bottle of pain killer” (soldiers). The doctors and nurses did the best they could with the resource’s they were