JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas –
The 1st Medical Recruiting Battalion, or 1MRBn, brought this year’s Annual Educators Tour to Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston May 26 to experience the home of Army Medicine.
Designed to provide education leaders and education-focused organizations with a greater understanding of Army medical career opportunities, this year’s tour consisted of nine healthcare education advisors, business executives, and administrators.
“Our key message is simple,” said Lt. Col.Conrad Wilmoski, 1MRBn commander. “We tell our community partners, ‘This is your Army, and we need your help to build it.’”
The two-day Educators Tour, led by 1MRBn’s Education Services Specialist David Dormann, showcased only a fragment of JBSA, which is home to U.S. Army North, U.S. Army South, the Army Medical Department, Army Regional Health Command Central and the Medical Education and Training Campus, which graduates more than 16,500 students from 49 medical programs annually.
Tour highlights included the U.S Army’s flagship medical institution Brooke Army Medical Center, the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research Burn Center, and the U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence, or MEDCoE.
During the tour, medical staff and trainers encouraged tour members to share their new knowledge about Army Medicine with their respective healthcare educational organizations back home.
“Less than one percent has the capacity, or the desire, to serve,” said Col. Shannon N. Shaw, director, department of leader training at MEDCoE, while pointing out the Army’s need to prepare for potential future large-scale conflicts. “That’s why what you do is so valuable to us. We need you to educate students who may have the capacity to service. It’s a win-win for all of us.”
By the end of the tour, several guests accepted the challenge and expressed the need to change perceptions within their own communities.
Tour member Jamie Thayer Scates, chief executive officer of the American Medical Student Association, felt especially impacted during the group’s visit to the Center for the Intrepid, a rehabilitation facility to treat amputees and burn victims.
“I sometimes can fall victim to negative perceptions of the Army,” said Scates, “but seeing something like this very heartfelt patient center, and seeing that level of care, was incredibly impressive and even moving at times.”
Dr. Jay Kyle, associate director of student success at Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, considers the educators' tour important leverage for 1stMRBn and its potential impact on community outreach.
“Many doctors, nurses, and veterinarians have misperceptions about Army Medicine and experiencing the tour would allow them to speak intelligently to their students about what they would be exposed to — and the benefits they would have — if they came into Army Medicine,” Kyle said.
Dormann, with more than 20 years of civilian and military service with the United States Recruiting Command, pointed out the necessity for the battalion’s ongoing educators' tour efforts.
“These tours are important,” Dormann said. “First and foremost, they educate our educators so they can better understand army medicine and then relate this information back home to their students who may be interested in service.”
Shaw, meanwhile, drove the point home during her closing remarks when she said, “Recruiting is not just a military mission; it’s a mission for all of us.”
More than 2,000 healthcare professionals were commissioned into the Army last year in more than 50 different specialties of physicians, dentists, nurses, veterinarians and other providers. They joined a team of nearly 100,000 Army medical professionals serving around the world. These Soldiers provide sustained health services and research to enable readiness and conserve the fighting strength while caring for our Army Soldiers and families.