Nursing During the Vietnam War

Nursing During the Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was the longest war ever fought by U.S. military forces. U.S. personnel were engaged from 1961 until 1973. Approximately 10,000 U.S. military women served in Vietnam during the war. Most were members of the Army, Navy, and Air Force Nurse Corps. All of the Army nurses were volunteers who attended a six-week basic training class, and then were assigned to one-year stunts in Vietnam hospitals and mobile army surgical hospital (MASH) units. Most of these nurses were fresh out of nursing school, some with less than six months of clinical experience. These nurses were not prepared for the physical and emotional wounds that they would have to heal.

Clearly the role of women stationed in Vietnam was quite different from that of the fighting soldier. In primarily medical positions, their major duties were to heal and provide nurturing to severely wounded and/or dying combat soldiers. This function was made more complicated by the fact that the nurses, many of whom were straight out of nursing school, were only a few years older than the wounded they cared for. These nurses were looked up to and took on the role as a "big sister" with their patients, providing psychological as well as medical comfort. The nurses were expected to be emotionally strong as well as physically strong. "Somehow, it was considered a lack of competence if they felt psychologically devastated by particular events of the accumulation of experiences related to the terrible wounds and deaths with which they had to deal" (Scannell-Desch, 2). This created the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that was a common disorder shared between the Vietnam nurses.

Besides clinical inexperience being a major problem causin...

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...book. It was very detailed when it came to the wars that the nurses had to volunteer in, because if it wasn't for the nurses, most of the soldiers would have died. Not only did this book cover nurses, it covered the beginning of nursing (Florenece Henderson) until the present day (1996). It explained new techniques and great methods of nursing compared to the past.

Hillstrom, Kevin and Hillstrom, L.C. (1998). The Vietnam Experience: a Concise Encyclopedia of American Literature, Songs and Films. Wesport, CT: Greenwood Press, Inc.

This was an encyclopedia about the Vietnam War. It had a specific section about the women and nurses and the physical and emotional effects the war and soldiers had on them. It had specific sections on many other things such as soldiers, weapons, etc. It was very informative, and gave great detail about women and nursing.