F e a t u r e s Comfort Zone
Military Nurse Squadron Leader Ian Hazzard, 10 UK Medical Group on Op Telic provides a thought provoking angle on operations and adventurous training
“Knowledge is nothing if it doesn’t give us the means for dealing with life” Valerio Massimo Manfred, The Last Legion, 2003
I
’m lying in my sleeping bag, staring at the light filtering through the blue and brown sheets I’d put over the mossi’ net. The other guy,
don’t know his name as he arrived during the night, keeps playing with something metallic, which then seems to precipitate snoring. We could have been anywhere.
There is a particular anonymity about being in a blacked out mossi’ tent. Once the zip is closed on the mossi’ tent and the outside world is barred – all sense of location is lost. I rotated my sleeping position through 180 degrees a few days before to have my head nearer to the external blast wall; consequently, when the rocket alarm went off this morning, I needed time to reorientate myself to the position of my Combat Body Armour (CBA). Somehow I must have fallen asleep with it on, as I’d woken up about five-ish, disorientated once again, with the rivets of the helmet drilling into my head.
The hum of the air conditioning, the acrid smell of sweat mixed with ‘Fabreeze’, the proximity to the ground – these are all universal, as comforting as the warmth of my sleeping bag. Oman, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Iraq, Ascension, MPA, Stanta, Otterburn, the Dukeries, Syerston, Wales all are accompanied by one constant – my sleeping bag. A source of warmth, comfort, rest, relaxation, it is for the moment my constant companion. It’s the same for thousands of other Service personnel all out there on the Contingency Operating
10 Summer 2008
Base (COB). Some even believe that by pulling the bag over them during a rocket attack, their protection from rocket shrapnel is increased – to them it is safety and the power of belief is very strong in this part of the world – so why not believe in the power of the sleeping bag to ward off evil. However, I trust in Kevlar and don it religiously when the alarm sounds.
Outside, as the dawn approached, the sky would be a brilliant red – not a call to prayer for us but a call to PT for those who wrench themselves from their bags. This was my third week on the COB and I feel a homely affection for it. Apart from the accommodation etc at Kuwait International Airport, on TELIC One, this was the most comfortable I had been on deployment. It’s said that people will complain whatever their predicament; it’s always better somewhere else or you know somewhere that’s better still. I get out of my maggot and walk over to the gym for some PT.
Sweating profusely, exhausted from continuous repetitions of sprinting around the accommodation area, lying on the hard, unforgiving earth, I’d give anything to be somewhere, somewhere near my body armour and helmet.
When we arrived here we had to do some training, it was the same as Individual Reinforcement Training (IRT) but in bigger cohorts, in bigger rooms. I chose the side of the room and created my space. Once the alarm went off, as was inevitable, the chaos to find space in the middle of the room ensued. It was the point of critical mass and the density was astounding – literally. When we eventually got up people started to gain more situational awareness and create their space. You began to choose your space in all places and at all times – life was often punctuated with a trip to your personal space.
The routine of the day then consisted of breakfast, email home and then work by 0730. The Sun, an average sized star,
seemed 50 times the size it is back home and burned with an intensity 500 times that of the Sun at home and slowly the temperature began to rise. The deployment was challenging, every one of them is. Not just because of the climate, the latitude, the lassitude, the early mornings and the interruptions by the neighbours but because of the fact that every Aeromedical Evacuation Liaison Officer (AELO) job is individual to that theatre and base. On my arrival at the COB I was amazed to see computers and photocopiers. My last 2 experiences of being an AELO had been salient experiences in handwriting and improvisation.
Irrespective of experience, the post of AELO is quite different to that of any deployed post for a nurse in the Defence Medical Service (DMS). As the profession becomes more and more specialised so nurses insidiously practice within their comfort zones. Deployment as an AELO strips away all reasonable levels of comfort and affords a nurse the chance to challenge themselves. Like all challenging environments the journey through the experience is always carried out with a level of uncertainty/insecurity – whether we wish to acknowledge it or not – but once completed the individual returns more confident. Conventional wisdom calls the experience Comfort, Stretch, Panic. We gain comfort through stretching our experiential biography, each time we do so our comfort levels increase. However, if we are thrown into panic, when we are challenged, it is likely that we will create an avoidance behaviour in the future. Therefore, all experience should be measured and controlled, hence handovers should be planned and allow the new incumbent to gain autonomy of their role incrementally.
Before penning my thoughts on an operational deployment I read through a number of articles, all had a point, be they descriptive, biographical or clinical. I tried to construct a point, a reason for the article and found it by trying to reconcile
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