U.S. Army mobile operating room on display at ECU

U.S. Army Capt. Jessica Schwinck, advanced life support officer-in-charge with the 541st Forward Surgical Team, checks a 5-month-old Afghan child with abdominal distension at the Forward Operating Base Orgun-E aid station in Afghanistan last year. (Photo by U.S. Army Pfc. Christopher McKenna, 3rd Brigade Combat Team Public Affairs)

GREENVILLE, N.C.  —   A U.S. Army mobile operating room will be on display Thursday, Jan. 27, and Friday, Jan. 28 on the fourth floor of the East Carolina Heart Institute at East Carolina University.

The event coincides with National Nurse Anesthetists Week, Jan. 23-29. The ECU College of Nursing offers the nurse anesthesia concentration in its master’s degree program, which is a 28-month course of study designed to prepare professional nurses as practitioners of nurse anesthesia eligible for national certification.

This is the first time the mobile operating room has been on display at ECU.

Army nurses, physicians and medics will give tours and answer questions about Army scholarships and medical careers.

Tours will be given 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Thursday and 8 a.m.-noon Friday. The East Carolina Heart Institute is at 115 Heart Dr.

In the field, forward surgical teams must be certified to set up in one hour but most can complete the process in 45 minutes, said Lisa Soule, advertising and public affairs officer with the 2nd Medical Recruiting Battalion.

Forward surgical teams have provided lifesaving operating room capabilities wherever U.S. soldiers are deployed.

For more information, contact Soule at 256-450-9624 or email Lisa.soule@usarec.army.mil.