The Begining of my Nurse Career at Landstuhl

This may be a shock, but I actually came to Germany to work as a nurse! Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (or LRMC pronounced LARM-C) is the biggest US hospital outside of the US. It is on the "hilltop." I drive twenty-five minutes into work everyday up the hill, through the security gates, park far away, have a security officer check my ID again and bag, then I finally make my way to the floor! Security is high as it should be.

Can I talk a little bit about the mission of LRMC? I always knew that it played a huge role in the link between the conflict in the Middle East and the US, but in the past couple weeks this role of my hospital has become very clear to me. Everyday LRMC gets a bus full of injured soldiers who come from Iraq and Afghanistan. Their injuries vary from psychological to critical blast injuries. It is heart wrenching and warming at the same time. Everyone works together to accomplish our mission to take the best care of the troops until we can send them to the States or back to the battlefield. I am in love with our mission and can't talk enough about it. I love being a nurse here! I have been rotating through the flight line, OR, and receiving new patients and finally see "the big picture."

There are many, many new nurses at Landstuhl, but everyone has such a high motivation for what they do! I think that I have been negative in previous posts about being in Germany. It is all worth it to be at Landstuhl with our men and women who serve us. I am humbled by their stories and wish I could share them with you on the Internet! (but I can't :( )

Finally, I thought I would share a few pictures of my apartment if you haven't seen them yet on facebook:



Wow, it takes long to upload photos. Guess this is it for now! Auf Wiedersen friends!