Battle-tested veterans earn FIU nursing degrees


In his 20-year Army career, Victor Arvizu was used to making split-second, life-saving decisions on the battlefield. Now the retired Army medic has learned to let his professors run the show.

Arvizu literally came straight from Afghanistan to FIU. He is one of four students about to graduate from FIU’s Veterans Bachelor of Science in Nursing (VBSN) degree program, which debuted this year and will welcome a new cohort of 30 in January.

Arvizu

Staff Sgt. Victor Arvizu spent 20 years as an Army combat medic and next month will graduate from FIU’s Veterans Bachelor of Science in Nursing program.
photo: Charles Trainor Jr., Miami Herald

Supported by a $1.3 million federal grant, the Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences program aims to graduate veterans with previous medical experience in just one year instead of the standard year and a half. Their real-world experience takes the place of several basic courses that most of them would find redundant.

“They definitely bring with them extraordinary life experiences,” said VBSN Program Director Maria Olenick of the combat-tested students who’ve seen things that traditional nursing students have not. “They’re a different group.”

Most come in having already mastered basic medical procedures like administering IVs and conducting patient assessments and are comfortable working in extremely stressful environments. When he was deployed, Arvizu mainly worked on trauma injuries like compound fractures, gaping wounds and collapsed lungs.

Their test at FIU is to learn to leave to the doctors what were once commonplace tasks for them – for example, stitching up patients and inserting chest tubes to inflate a collapsed lung – and instead learn to work with pediatric and geriatric patients and focus on post-operative care, activities they never encountered in the military.

That can be difficult at times, Arvizu admits, but “you have to keep an open mind,” he said. “Try to take what the professors tell you before what you would already know. Learn from them.”

New cohort “deploys” in January

The next group of students will benefit from the lessons learned in year one.

David Hildreth, an academic coach for the program, said it was good to have a small first group because they were able to make changes along the way with little effect on the students. “It was a test flight,” he said.

Like most new programs, the VBSN program has had a few issues: for example, figuring out the pacing of classes and scheduling classes around students’ required reservist training. (Three of the four students were reservists; next year, half will be reservists.)

Jalicia Johnson, who has worked as a lab technician in the Army Reserve for seven years, is among the students ready to begin classes in January. She has been an FIU student for more than four years and is nearly finished with a bachelor’s degree in biology.

She believes that her rigorous physical and mental training, coupled with her experience in the lab, have prepared her for a career in nursing.

“I’ve learned prioritization, getting things done in a timely manner,” she said. “I’ve learned how to lead.”

A life of serving others

Students like Arvizu and Johnson see the program as a step toward their dream careers and a way to continue contributing to society. Arvizu plans to eventually get his master’s degree as a certified registered nurse anesthetist, and Johnson hopes to become a commissioned nurse in the Army Reserve.

The fact that service members have already given to society once and want to do so again is something that FIU values and supports.

“What we’re doing here impacts their income levels, whether or not they’re employed, and it can make huge differences in their personal lives,” Olenick says. “These vets deserve it.”

 

 

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