In response to the growing number of servicemen on rotation from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), which is charged with providing medical care for military veterans, has created nursing academies through partnerships with universities across the country. Fairfield University was among the first four schools to be invited to the program at its inception in 2007. Participating students attend lecture in the university School of Nursing and clinical training at the VA Hospital in West Haven.
On Wednesday May 20, U.S. Navy veteran Scott MacDonald spoke to the students of the Fairfield University VA Nursing Academy. His military service and his experience as a paraplegic reflected to the dual concerns of the Nursing Academy: medical care and veteran services.
MacDonald joined the Navy in 1994 and served as a radioman on the USS Kearsarge in the Persian Gulf until a car accident in 1999 left him paralyzed from his chest down. In his last year of active duty, MacDonald was preparing to join the Navy Explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit. Just prior to starting his new position, MacDonald had leave to go home to Connecticut for the weekend. During his return to the Naval Base in Norfolk, Virginia MacDonald stopped to offer assistance at an accident on the New Jersey Turnpike. The ordeal took several hours and MacDonald noted that he was left with an adrenaline rush which soon collapsed into fatigue. Cognizant of the monotonous and infamously linear Jersey turnpike, MacDonald switched to Route 13.
Despite this change, MacDonald fell asleep while driving. He awoke supine on the side of the road after being ejected from his vehicle. At first MacDonald thought that he was lying among bits of broken windshield glass, and stuck under his car thus inhibiting his ability to move his legs. In reality his body was in the open, but his legs were paralyzed and his back was being pricked by broken bones. At the hospital doctors told the twenty- seven year old MacDonald that he would never walk again.
As an active duty member of the military, MacDonald was transferred to a VA hospital where he spent six months convalescing and learning how to live in a completely new way. He explained to the nursing students the nature of his injuries: three shattered and two broken vertebrae, specifically Thoracic 3-8. In order to rectify the damage, doctors fused the bones in his spine together for stability and embedded metal rods in his back for proper alignment while healing. MacDonald recalls that he had to wear a "turtle shell" brace after this surgery. The device was extremely cumbersome, but MacDonald had to keep moving as much as possible in order to prevent muscular atrophy in his upper body.
Several other concerns began to creep into his daily life, including proper kidney care, bladder and bowel care, weekly skin checks with a mirror for cuts and bruises on insensitive parts of his body, and of course exercise despite limited mobility. In this last area MacDonald has triumphed by participating in several triathlons, regularly beating able bodied athletes. In addition, he works with the Special Olympics, Winners on Wheels, which is an organization for handicapped children, and the Paralyzed Veterans of America.
MacDonald spoke candidly about his medical needs and advised the nursing students, "The first thing to do with any new veteran or any new patient is to just listen." Wounded soldiers and paraplegics face a myriad of medical concerns daily and communication is essential in establishing a responsive regimen. An effective program incorporates medicine but also, as in MacDonald's case, learning to drive with just hands, staying active in the community, and not letting injury become a cause for isolation.
MacDonald also spoke about his work as a Constituent Service Representative, specializing in veterans' affairs, for Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut's Fourth Congressional District. MacDonald helps local veterans with everything from figuring out VA health coverage, which can be extended to veterans' families, to relaying familial messages to soldiers, sailors, and airmen in combat zones. In describing his position MacDonald stated, "It's not about political views, it's about what we can do for our district and for our community," he added, "Jim [Himes] makes my job easy, he has no barriers when it comes to support for his veterans."
Students in the Nursing Academy may ultimately deliver this support where it is needed. Successful pupils will earn a bachelor of science in nursing and become registered nurses. This will be the second degree, and often a second career, for those in the program since a bachelor's is a prerequisite for admission. Scholarships are offered to students under an agreement that they will to be assigned to a VA facility in the U.S. after completion of the program.
The academy's first class is set to graduate this year and one student who has, "demonstrated a true appreciation for the veteran population... [and] exhibits compassion with a sense of gratitude for the patriotic service and a sacrifice that earned our freedom," will be nominated by his peers to receive the inaugural Scott MacDonald Award.
For more information about the Fairfield University VA Nursing Academy please visit http://www.fairfield.edu/son/son_va.html. For information on veteran's affairs for Southern Fairfield County please visit www.himes.house.gov and see the link for veterans on the left.