Most people buy an expensive car or go on an outlandish spending spree when they’re in their late-40s, but Michael Rieker, CRNA, DNP, FAAN, isn’t like most people. Instead of doing any of those other things, he used his talent and skills in nurse anesthesia to join the Army Reserve, which led to him serving in Afghanistan. Today he’ll tell us about that experience and how it’s helped him in his current role at Wake Forest University.

Read more and get additional resources here: https://beyondthemaskpodcast.com/ep-127-a-crnas-experience-being-deployed-to-afghanistan/2886/ 

Get the CE certificate here: https://beyondthemaskpodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Beyond-the-Mask-CE-Cert-FILLABLE.pdf

What we discuss on this episode:

2:14 – Welcome in our guest

3:58 – Deployment to Afghanistan

8:11 – How busy was he

11:27 – Providing anesthesia to civilians  

12:48 – Conditions overseas right now  

14:47 – What a typical day looked like  

17:06 – Transitioning back to real life  

20:20 – Very limited connectivity on deployment

21:02 – School while he was away

22:52 – Top things he learned

25:29 – Benefits of the military

26:41 – Final thoughts