Brig. Gen. William Bester, on Army nursing

By Bree LeMaire, MS, RN
January 30, 2004

How did you get into nursing? Military nursing?

I developed an interest in becoming a nurse anesthetist. That was my focus when starting nursing school.

My military career began when I met a recruiter at the College of St. Scholastica and was offered to enter a program called the Army Student Nurse Corps Program that paid tuition, books and a monthly stipend. That three-year obligation has ended up being a 30-year career.

Your experience is extensive. Is there anything special that stays with you from your Operation Joint Endeavor experiences in Hungary?

I still remember our military's ability to accomplish any mission given under the most austere of conditions. We arrived in Hungary Dec. 14, 1995. It was the middle of winter and there was lots of snow. We were asked to put up a hospital to support the 20,000-plus troops due to process through Hungary on their way to Bosnia.

Within the first 24 hours, we had a fully functioning OR, CMS, four critical care beds and an EMT ready to go. In the weeks to follow, we expanded our facility to 52 inpatient beds, a pharmacy, a lab, two ORs, two CMSs, an EMT, a dental clinic, a telemedicine section, radiology, a CT scan and a medical maintenance section.

What happened on your recent trip to Germany?

I just came back from Landstuhl Army Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany. That is where all the casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan are transferred. Many patients there were young soldiers who were severely wounded with amputations, gunshot wounds and blast injuries. However, their morale was high and all echoed the same thing-the outstanding nursing care.

Most of the reserve nurses in Landstuhl have been there about a year. Our soldiers are cared for by both active duty and reserve nurses. All those soldiers were extremely positive about their nursing care.

What were some of the nursing challenges you met as the task force commander in Hungary and Croatia?

The primary challenge was to continue to provide full-spectrum health care to all the soldiers assigned to or flowing in or out of the Balkans. This included inpatient care, outpatient care, ground ambulance support, air ambulance support, preventive medicine support, veterinary support and dental support throughout Croatia and Hungary.

What nursing challenges have you run into as the chief of the Army Nurse Corps?

Recruitment, retention, scope of practice issues, patient safety initiatives, continued focus on expanding the educational base-both military and civilian education-throughout our nursing population, and improving our ability to recruit and retain quality civilian nurses-50 percent of our nursing workforce is civilian.

What is the future direction of the Army Nurse Corps?

The Army Nurse Corps continues to be focused on our core competencies of clinical nursing practice, continuing education, nursing research, mentorship and providing the best nursing leadership possible.

We continue to pursue initiatives that assist us in recruiting and retaining quality nurses; providing educational benefits that expand our nurses' ability to provide safe and effective nursing services; pursing monies to support nursing research; providing the necessary mentorship to develop our next generation of nursing leaders; and then providing the leadership training necessary for our nurses to become not only quality nursing leaders, but also effective military leaders.

Anything special you'd like to add?

The Army Nurse Corps has been a successful nursing organization for 103 years now. We were the first nursing organization to move to a baccalaureate entry-level requirement and have had that requirement for more than 25 years.

We place a high priority on education, supporting more than 100 nurses a year to attend graduate school, fully funded while collecting their salary at the same time. We additionally fund five or six nurses a year for doctoral education.

The Army Nurse Corps, along with the other services, has received $53 million in the past 10 years to focus on nursing research. The quality of care our nurses provide is reflected in the fact that Army hospitals, on average, score higher on their JCAHO surveys than our civilian counterparts. Our wonderful nursing professionals not only are required to perform excellent nursing care in our hospitals in a peacetime environment, but are also frequently asked to take care of severely traumatized soldiers in austere environments like Iraq and Afghanistan. An Army nurse can best be described by our motto-"Ready, Caring, Proud."