‘I Am Navy Medicine, helping stop the spread of COVID-19’: Lt. Anna Dufour, Navy Nurse Corps officer

For Lt. Anna Dufour and the other approximately 4,000 active duty and reserve Navy Nurse Corps officers, helping stop the spread of COVID-19 follows their legacy of delivering patient-centered care since their inception 112 years ago. The Navy Nurse Corps birthday falls on May 13, inexorably linked to National Nurses Week, celebrated annually May 6 to May 12, which fittingly ends on the birthday of Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), the founder of modern nursing. Then, as now, caring for the sick and injured, establishing sanitary methods, supporting operational readiness during the Crimean War (1853-56) are legacies established as nursing standards by Nightingale and notable commitment by the Nurse Corps against the pandemic outbreak.
Dufour and the other 60 Nurse Corps and 80 civilian nurses at Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command (NMRTC) Bremerton have been tasked with proactively handling multiple assignment to screen, triage, and test for COVID-19, as well as continue daily needed support for acute-care patients. NMRTC Bremerton’s Urgent Care Clinic (UCC) is a microcosm example of nurses – and teamwork - in action - #NursesWeek, #YearoftheNurse, and #MHSNurses (Official Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Meagan Christoph, NHB/NMRTC Bremerton public affairs).