Medicine at Sea

All Aboard: GEMS Students Learn about Medicine at Sea
August 2, 2010

Georgetown students are already familiar with the motto of cura personalis—or 'care of the whole person'--- but on July 29, they learned that the motto applies to patients not only on land, but at sea.

Georgetown GEMS students hopped aboard the USNS COMFORT, the Navy medical vessel that provides humanitarian relief to countries going through a disaster, and learned about its surgical and medical services while afloat.

The USNS COMFORT, which recently traveled to Haiti, is a 1000-bed floating hospital that serves as a lead trauma site for victims of disaster. Nearly 24 students in the GEMS program, just starting out their medical careers, were able to see firsthand that the USNS COMFORT certainly lives up to her name.

The students toured the USNS COMFORT as guests of the United States Navy and the Health Professions Scholarship Program (HPSP) that is administered by the U.S Armed Forces. HPSP offers scholarship support to qualified medical students through financial support, tuition, fees and a monthly stipend. Following their medical school graduation, HPSP scholars may complete a residency in the U.S. Navy providing medical care to sailors (men and women) and their dependents. The scholarship allows students to graduate free of educational debt in exchange for commissioned service.

The students, in addition to Joy Williams, associate dean for students and special programs, as well as Jett McCann, associate dean for knowledge management, toured the sprawling ship that houses X-ray rooms, a CAT scan unit, and its own blood bank that maintains 5,000 units of blood on board. Patients who receive treatment on the USNS Comfort are typically airlifted to the ship, where they are first assessed for medical treatment in casualty receiving, and then are routed to surgery or other services depending on the severity of their wounds.

Second-year medical student Oswaldo Aguirre may have the opportunity to treat patients aboard the USNS COMFORT once he completes his medical education. Aguirre, who recently applied to the HPSP, hopes to serve on the USNS COMFORT as a Navy doctor. “It’s fascinating to see this ship and her [the Comfort’s] capabilities to provide a full-range of hospital services,” he said. “To have the chance to serve on the USNS COMFORT as a doctor, and to serve my country, would be a great honor.”

The ship has nearly every type of specialist available onboard, including burn treatment nurses, and is designed to receive 300 surgical patients each day.

Hoyas are well-known for their dedication to military service: McCann recently retired after 41 years in the Navy Reserve; Stephen Ray Mitchell, dean for medical education; U.S. Airforce, and Fr. James Duffy, assistant dean for clinical education; U.S. Navy.

By: Tressa Kirby, GUMC Office of Communications

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