The amazing work of nurses

Military Nurses
Major Paula Couglin, an army nurse, demonstrated to one grieving father that care and compassion don’t stop even if a patient fails to survive a battlefield trauma. Click here to listen to the father’s account of meeting Major Couglin out of the blue at a Memorial Day service and hearing one last story about his son’s passing.

U.S. Army Captain Bryan Ferrara, RN, may have saved more lives than he’ll ever know through his work to vaccinate 4,000 troops in Iraq. He takes the job of keeping troops healthy very seriously—and the American Nurses Association gave him the 2011 Immunity Award in February for his service.

In memoriam: General Hazel Johnson-Brown overcame more than just the usual challenges in her career as a healthcare professional. Johnson-Brown couldn’t even get into the nursing school of her choice (West Chester School of Nursing) in the late 1940s because she was an African American. Fortunately, the Harlem School of Nursing stepped in to provide the education she needed. Johnson-Brown worked at a veteran’s hospital and joined the Army for a two-year tour. Twenty-eight years later, she retired after having become the first black woman to achieve the rank of U.S. Army General—and the first African-American chief of the Army Nurse Corps.

Next: Nurses with a Cause →