CHARLESTON, W.Va. –
West Virginia Air National Guard flight nurse Capt. Jeffery Schroer lived in the Las Vegas desert before making a break for the hills of West Virginia eight months ago, after his initial four-year enlistment as an active duty Air Force pediatric and medical surgical nurse at Nellis Air Force Base ended.
His decision to make the move to the WVANG was helped along - as it often is - by a native Mountaineer.
“I have a friend - Capt. Gary Canterbury at the 167th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron (AES) - that I met [in Commissioned Officer School] and kept in contact with,” Schroer said. “I used him to get some insight on the unit and job and he definitely recommended it.”
“Jeff is the kind of nurse we want in the unit - always a positive attitude, willing to train others, blows away the PT (physical fitness) test and excels at his civilian career,” said Canterbury, a 167th AES flight nurse. “I knew he would help the morale of the unit.”
The 167th AES, a detachment of the 130th Airlift Wing located in Charleston, West Virginia, provides time sensitive, mission critical en route care to patients to and between medical treatment facilities as a part of homeland defense missions and in overseas or combat environments.
While still on active duty, Schroer surveyed co-workers about their branches and type of service. Active duty was the same no matter where you went, he said, and reserves spoke positively about their jobs but had some complaints, but just about all the Guard members he spoke to had many positive things to say about it.
“They really seemed happy with the Guard and that is what I was going for,” he said. “I wanted to enjoy my military experience.”
Schroer enlisted with the 167th AES and said he is satisfied with his decision.
“I really enjoy the work/life balance,” he said. “I am able to keep up with family and friends while still serving. I also enjoy that I can mix things up with my career and basically work two different jobs.”
“I am a flight nurse in the military and an inpatient neurology/neurosurgery/trauma pediatric nurse at Cincinnati Children's Hospital on the outside. I can continue to develop my career while still serving in the military. Both of which I enjoy,” he said.
The two specialties compliment each other, as well. At the children’s hospital, Schroer often cares for patients with gunshot wounds or head trauma, which are not unlike combat environment casualties he may encounter as a flight nurse. Schroer is also the only pediatric nurse in the 167th AES which helps round out their team’s experience, Canterbury said. While having someone who specializes in children is not a requirement, he said, the medical evacuation mission covers civilians and military family members as well as military, so his specialty helps fill a gap in experience.
With his background and experience, Schroer could have gone anywhere in the Guard, but Canterbury said the 167th AES is not a hard sell.
“We’re the best aeromed squad there is!” Canterbury explained. “Okay, I may be very opinionated, but the thing that really separates the WVANG from all other aeromedical evacuation squadrons in the Guard are the missions, training, deployments and the fact that we have our own C-130s and C-17s in the state, so we don’t have to borrow them [from other units].”
Schroer received a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati, Ohio, a Masters of Health Informatics degree from Northern Kentucky University and is a Certified Medical-Surgical Registered Nurse.
It is his experience in the military and health informatics degree that lead to his representation of all Air Force inpatient nurses during a six-week testing process for GENESIS, the Department of Defense’s military health care management system modernization project that aims to provide a single worldwide electronic health record (EHR) system for more than nine million beneficiaries.
It was during his deployment to Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, that he made connections with and applied to the program. He went on temporary duty to Seattle, Washington, to work at the DoD Lab on the project, and said it was a great experience for him to use both his nursing and informatics degrees to help the DoD. Schroer said he would like to continue this work in the Air Guard, working on process improvement and further developing the Electronic Health Record system.
“So far, my job in the WVANG has taken the best parts of my active duty experience and thrown away much of the frustrating parts of the military,” Schroer said. “It allows me to work, develop my career, live life with family and friends, and still serve in the United States Air Force.”