FORT CAVAZOS, Texas – The Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center welcomed five U.S. Army Reserve Officer Training Corps nursing cadets to its halls for a 28-day nursing program, and they got to sit down with the hospital commander, its senior staff members, and the U.S. Army Cadet Command chief nurse July 18. 
Cadets, Carl Llona and Trisha Patawaran University of San Francisco, Camila Swiatlowsk Washington University, Zoe Swope Texas A&M-College Station, and Katelynn Lands, Bradley University, began the program at the facility July 15.
Most medical treatment facilities throughout the U.S., and some overseas, participate in the summer nursing program. There are nearly 200 nursing cadets participating the in the program this year.
The summer program sees mostly college juniors and seniors at the medical treatment facilities because cadets are required to complete their medical surgery college track prior to participating in the nursing summer training.
Cadet Zoe Swope, Texas A&M University, College Station, waited a whole year because of the completion stipulation. 
“I’m kind of glad that I waited until this year, because now that I’m done with all of my clinicals at school, I’ve kind of gone through all of the rotations, so I was able to know what sort of unit I’m interested in working for,” Swope said
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The students rotate between different clinics at school and in the facilities, and Swope is currently in the mother baby unit at CRDAMC. 
“Coming here and rotating through the units again is helping me solidify even more that I may want to do critical care nursing,” Swope added. “Being here and being in the mother baby unit, makes me love it [nursing] even more.”
The people and the nurses here specifically are so willing to teach, help cadets learn, she added.
“The atmosphere was the biggest thing that I told my parents about,” Swope said. “Everyone loves being here, everyone loves what they do, and I think that’s the most important thing of a hospital.”
Students who would like to participate in the program can contact their colleges medical department and ask how to sign up or visit the ROTC website at https://armyrotc.army.mil.
“We are appreciative of CRDAMC and all of or other MTFs (medical treatment facilities) for supporting the summer training program,” said Col. LaKisha Wright, chief nurse, U.S. Army Cadet Command.
The cadets and the hospital education coordinator, Brenda Ploof, had similar sentiments about coordination for the program and the opportunity to participate. 
The coordination of airport pickup and relocation; requirements to participate in the different departments like labor and delivery, mother baby unit and the operating rooms; and finding preceptors that were not already supporting in other areas was challenging, according to Ploof.
“We are essentially motivated to ensure the organization fulfills the needs of our future officer’s success and the summer nursing program, she said.”
The program helped cadet Katelynn Lands, Bradley university learn more about actually working in the Army.
 “I think it’s amazing, because I didn’t really know what the future as a 2nd lieutenant and how my workday would go before I came her, but now I’m able to talk and interact with people who know exactly what I going to do in the future and they can give me advice, so it’s been really good to be on the floor,” Lands said.
Land’s added that being a cadet and a nursing program student at the same time is very challenging, because the workload is increased by double that of the regular cadet. 
“As long as you have a PMS [professor of military science] that’s super understanding of that and understands that you have a lot more of going on than the other cadets than you’re going to do well,” she said. 
The program is not currently mandatory for the Army but may be soon.
“The nurse summer training program is really helpful, because most of the nursing students don’t get a lot of clinical experience,” said Wright. “They get a lot of simulation, so them coming here for these 28 days gives them more clinical experience than they will ever get in nursing school.”