This is the story of Megan Dodge:
An Army nurse who served with the 31st CSH in Camp Dwyer, Afghanistan
You'll know you're a military nurse in 2010 when...
10. You build a 52-bed tent hospital before you start working in it.
9. Every time your patient has to use the toilet, you escort him out to the port-a-pot.
8. Ninety-percent of the ward is a name alert because everyone is named "Mohammed."
7. All the patients’ spike temps around 1400 vitals, because it's 90+degrees in the tent, and that's with AC.
6. You have mastered the three most important Afghani (Pashtu) words: pain, bathroom, and water.
5. At the end of the day, you walk 100m to your tent with your 11 roommates.
4. You're discharging a patient and you have to know what time the helicopter is landing.
3. On one ward, you are caring for the Marine who’s been wounded and on the other ward, caring for the EPW who wounded him.
2. The alert roster consists of "What tent do you live in and what cot is yours?"
1. Your patient has survived another IED blast and cannot wait to return with his unit outside the wire.
-From 31st CSH, Camp Dwyer, Afghanistan - the largest functioning temper tent hospital established since Vietnam.
10. You build a 52-bed tent hospital before you start working in it.
9. Every time your patient has to use the toilet, you escort him out to the port-a-pot.
8. Ninety-percent of the ward is a name alert because everyone is named "Mohammed."
7. All the patients’ spike temps around 1400 vitals, because it's 90+degrees in the tent, and that's with AC.
6. You have mastered the three most important Afghani (Pashtu) words: pain, bathroom, and water.
5. At the end of the day, you walk 100m to your tent with your 11 roommates.
4. You're discharging a patient and you have to know what time the helicopter is landing.
3. On one ward, you are caring for the Marine who’s been wounded and on the other ward, caring for the EPW who wounded him.
2. The alert roster consists of "What tent do you live in and what cot is yours?"
1. Your patient has survived another IED blast and cannot wait to return with his unit outside the wire.
-From 31st CSH, Camp Dwyer, Afghanistan - the largest functioning temper tent hospital established since Vietnam.
