{"id":325708,"date":"2020-07-01T06:03:08","date_gmt":"2020-06-30T20:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=325708"},"modified":"2020-07-01T06:03:08","modified_gmt":"2020-06-30T20:03:08","slug":"army-reserve-nurses-help-cnmis-covid-19-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/army-reserve-nurses-help-cnmis-covid-19-response\/","title":{"rendered":"Army Reserve nurses help CNMI\u2019s COVID-19 response"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Nurses from the 1984th U.S. Army Hospital-Pacific, headquartered at Fort Shafter Flats, Honolulu, Hawaii, are deployed to the CNMI to help increase medical capacity. (MAJ. MELODIE TAFAO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Maj. James F. Schmidt, a Certified Nurse Anesthetist, was one of six nurses assigned to the 1984th U.S. Army Hospital \u2013 Pacific, 9th Mission Support Command, that deployed to the CNMI to provide medical expertise in support of COVID-19 response efforts.<\/p>\n

Schmidt is a staff nurse anesthetist for the 1984th USAH-P, Detachment 2, in Fort Wainwright, Alaska. \u201cI am a soldier,\u201d said Schmidt. \u201cI am happy to serve wherever you need me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is a resident of Greenville, South Carolina and works as a full time nurse anesthetist at Prisma Healthcare Corp. where he cares for adult patients in a variety of surgical specialties. But when the call came to serve his nation, Schmidt did not hesitate.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaj. Schmidt was a perfect choice for the job to support FEMA\u2019s COVID response in the CNMI because his civilian job had cross-trained him in the Intensive Care Unit to support where ever the need was,\u201d said Col. Paz Nuanez, 1984th USAH-P commander. \u201cAs a nurse anesthetist, he had extensive experience in managing mechanically ventilated patients and with SARS-COV-2 causing severe respiratory failure. Maj. Schmidt was and is an excellent choice to support.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the mobilization, Schmidt found himself 7,850 miles away from South Carolina on Saipan, an island in the Northern Mariana Islands. He also worked as a critical care nurse in the ICU at Saipan\u2019s hospital, Commonwealth Health Center, and performed other COVID-19 related responsibilities as needed such as community testing for COVID-19, screening incoming residents and visitors to CNMI at the Pacific Island Club and monitored COVID-19 positive guests at the Kanoa Alternate Care Facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur integration into the [Commonwealth Healthcare Corp.] staff was seamless and we were welcomed with open arms,\u201d Schmidt said. \u201cOur credentials and privileges were immediately approved, and we were able to get right to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schmidt, along with the five additional nurses from the 1984th USAH-P, were called \u201cBig Hero Six\u201d by 1984th USAH-P commander, Col. Paz Nuanez.<\/p>\n

\u201cI called all six of them personally,\u201d Nuanez explained. \u201cAnd without hesitation, they all volunteered to mobilize for a quick COVID Response and place themselves in harm\u2019s way to help the people of CNMI, and that is why I called them my \u2018Big Hero 6.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Their dedication, work and expertise resulted in mission accomplishment and a grateful community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people of Saipan were most gracious and appreciative,\u201d Schmidt said. \u201cEvery single interaction with patients, their families, and the community has been nothing but positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur mission was an overall success,\u201d Schmidt adds. \u201cDue to the rapid and proactive response to the COVID-19 situation by the Governor\u2019s COVID Task Force, the government of CNMI, CHCC and the community\u2019s participation in mitigating measures and compliance with CDC guidelines, we avoided a spike in inpatient cases.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maj. James F. Schmidt, a Certified Nurse Anesthetist, was one of six nurses assigned to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":325709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7298,26],"class_list":["post-325708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-army-reserve","tag-cnmi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}