Description of United States Military Nurses Deployed to Afghanistan &amp;amp; Iraq, 2001-2015

Cristóbal Berry-Cabán,Thomas A Beltran,Lawrence Anderson,Felecia Rivers

doi:10.4236/ojn.2018.81008

Abstract

Since 2001, US military forces have been engaged in Afghanistan and in Iraq. During fifteen years of conflict in both operations US troops have incurred a total of 52,022 wounded and 6857 deaths. The aim of this analysis is to describe the characteristics of US military nurses that deployed to these combat theatres. Data for this retrospective analysis were provided by the US Department of Defense, Defense Manpower Data Center and describes characteristics military nurses that deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq, or both between September 1, 2001 and July 31, 2015. A total of 6326 nurses deployed during this period; 3296 nurses deployed to Afghanistan and 2683 nurses deployed to Iraq. Fifty-five percent of deployed nurses were male. The majority of deployed nurses were white (32.9%) followed by Hispanic (22.9%) and black nurses (14.5%). Most deployed nurses had a baccalaureate nursing degree (88.9%) and 9% deployed nurses had an advanced degree. Most deployed nurses were classified as general nurses (66.6%). Further research is needed to examine in detail the impacts of deployments upon nurses.

Highlights

The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States sparked the invasion of Afghanistan, by the United States, the Commonwealth of Australia, the United Kingdom and other allied nations
A total of 6326 nurses deployed during this period; 3296 nurses deployed to Afghanistan and 2683 nurses deployed to Iraq
A total of 6326 nurses deployed between September 2001 and March 2015― 3296 (52.1%) nurses deployed to Afghanistan and 2683 (42.4%) nurses deployed to Iraq; 347 (5.5%) deployed to both countries

Summary

Introduction

The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States sparked the invasion of Afghanistan, by the United States, the Commonwealth of Australia, the United Kingdom and other allied nations. On October 7, 2001, soldiers set out to combat the al-Qaeda organization based in Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). OEF officially ended December 31, 2014 [2]. Bush assembled a “coalition of the willing”, that involved about sixty nations. Some of these countries supplied little more than nominal assistance, fully 37 of them furnished around 150,000 ground forces. These troops conducted security operations; provided reconstruction assistance; operated command-and-control headquarters; and fought, were wounded, and killed, alongside US soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines [4]. OIF officially ended December 15, 2011 [5]

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Discussion

Conclusion