20/3/2008

Local News

Military nurses in the limelight

SO PROUD: Cpl Alastair Nicholls and Cpl Sarah Auld with Derek Twigg

MILITARY nurses from the Star area who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan have been congratulated at a special event at the Royal College of Nursing.
The reception last Wednesday evening, attended by more than 100 defence nurses, was addressed by Derek Twigg, Undersecretary of State for Defence.
Afterwards he said:  “Our nurses are an impressive group. We are lucky to have such a special collection of individuals, and I certainly know that our defence nurses are highly valued and much appreciated by personnel throughout the Armed Forces.
“Thanks to them, lives are being saved on a daily basis. And let us not forget that very often these are also the lives of Iraqi and Afghan men, women and children.
Among those congratulated were Major Jan Pilgrim, who joined Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps (QARANC) in 1994.
She is currently on a command and staff course at Shrivenham Defence College and has been awarded Queen’s Commendation for Valuable Service (QCVS) for work with refugees in Macedonia. She was also made an Associate of the Royal Red Cross (ARRC) for service in Afghanistan in 2003.
Originally from North Shields, North Tyneside, Major Pilgrim now lives in Aldershot.
She was Officer Commanding Hospital Squadron 34 Field Hospital in Iraq for Telic 10.
Married to a former soldier, Terry, Major Pilgrim is a keen runner, running the London Marathon last year despite breaking her toe the day before!
She said: “The best thing is being able to do our job in whatever environment. I qualified as a nurse in civvy street, in North Tyneside, and then joined the Army, but I can apply my nursing skills to whatever situation the Army puts me in and still be able to give high levels of nursing care.”
She described her invitation to the RCN reception as “extremely humbling”.
Currently working in the Medical Assessment Unit at Frimley Park Hospital and living in Church Crookham, Cpl Alastair Nicholls is a nurse with Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps.
At 25 years old, this married nurse served in Iraq May to December last year and is currently applying to join the police.
Talking about his time in Iraq he said: “The first three months in particular were very challenging. We came under heavy enemy indirect fire. The workload was quite heavy and we were dealing with a lot of injured soldiers. The heat made it quite a difficult environment to work in but I found that I worked well with my colleagues and made some good friends.”
Talking about the benefits of working at Frimley Park Hospital he said: “It gives us completely different experience. You’re dealing with a much wider range of conditions. So when I did deploy I had a much broader range of experience to draw on.”
Another civilian-trained nurse who joined the Army is Cpl Sarah Auld, 24.
She now works on the six bed Surgical Acute Dependency Unit at Frimley Park Hospital, looking after patients that have come out of the intensive care and high dependency units but not yet ready for wards. She lives in military accommodation in Aldershot.
She served in Iraq last August to December as a registered nurse on the surgical ward. She also had duties guarding the camp in Basra and checking vehicles coming into the camp.
She said: “It was exhilaratingly scary. The challenges were adapting to the work and living and working in the same place. It was a brilliant experience.”
Talking about being invited to the RCN event she said: “It makes me very proud, first to be a nurse, and second to be a defence nurse. Not only can we carry out the normal day to day nursing practice, we carry it out in more extreme, difficult and pressurised environments.

First printed in: Surrey Hants Star