Get to know nurse Captain Estacy Porter, the public health nurse officer in charge at the 14th Combat Support Hospital in Fort Benning, Georgia. Hear about Captain Porter’s military career in nursing and questions from nursing students, as part of our “Ask A Nurse” portion of the podcast.

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Jamie Davis:         Hi, Estacy and welcome to Nursing Notes Live. It’s great to have you here on the show with us today.

Estacy Porter:                    Oh, thank you, Jamie, for having me.

Jamie:                   So I always ask our nurses on the show to share a little bit about why you wanted to become a nurse. So if you like to just tell us what drew you to nursing as a career, a little bit about your background.

Estacy:       I think my very first experience or what drew me into nursing was, well, watching my mother. My mother was not a nurse but she’s like working as a home health aid in New York and I would always watch and see her caring for the older population and so I knew that when I got older that I want to do something similar to that but expound a little bit more and nursing was to seal that, fell in love with or attracted me.

Jamie:                   So I know you’re in the military, our subject this month is talking about nursing in the military and tell us a little bit about your career progression in the military and how you moved into nursing school and beyond.

Estacy:       Okay. So when I graduated from high school, I wanted to join the military and I wanted to join in the healthcare field, nursing. So I went up to the recruiter, they did not have nursing available at that time. And so he showed me another field which was chemical, biological and nuclear specialist and he showed me a picture of somebody working. And the lab called and said, “You know this is something similar to nursing.” So I said, “Okay, fine, great.” So for 13 years, I did that and somewhere around that year, I found out that the Army had a program where they would fund you to go to nursing school for two years and once you get your bachelor’s, then you can come in as a commissioned officer, second lieutenant. So I jumped on that opportunity and said, “Wow, the opportunity, I’ll be able to pursue my passion. Not that I didn’t like the battlefield but I kind of got used to it and kind of forgot about the nursing thing. So, anyway, I went to school and pursued nursing with Old Dominion University in Norfolk. Oh, wow, the opportunity has just have been open ever since then.

Jamie:                   That’s great. You’re a captain, now, right?

Estacy:       Yes. I am a captain. I’m a captain in the Army. Once I became a nurse, I went to – the beautiful thing about the Army is when you become commissioned and as a nurse, they take you to a preceptorship or an intro to officership in nursing. So I went to San Antonio for two weeks and we kind of got introduced on how to become an officer or what the expectations as an officer is and as an Army Nurse Corps officer. I went there and I started off as a med-surg nurse in Augusta, Georgia. I loved it. That’s why I was able to build up all my skills and foundation in nursing. From there, I went to Korea and I became a Public Health Nurse right before that. So I loved med-surg but I knew my passion lies because I’m a public health nurse. I really felt that it’s important to focus on preventive care. What is it that I can do for you to prevent you from getting into the hospital. So I loved the education and the counseling and teaching that to my patients so that they can have inform...