UW School of Nursing Graduate Combines Education and Military Training in Battling Pandemic

A recent graduate of the University of Wyoming’s Doctor of Nursing Practice Program has gone from providing health care to U.S. Army soldiers at Fort Bliss, Texas, to the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Capt. Stephen Russell, who graduated from the program in UW’s Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing in 2017, completed his initial Army training in 2018 and was transferred along with his family to Fort Bliss. There, his work as a nurse practitioner was in primary care -- annual wellness visits, sick-call visits and helping soldiers maintain medical readiness for deployment.

Then, in March 2020, medical facilities around the country began feeling the full brunt of COVID-19 infections.

“In March, I volunteered and was assigned to participate in the standing up of a Respiratory Virus Evaluation Center (RVEC) to assist with COVID testing and treatment at Fort Bliss,” Russell says. “The RVEC serviced all active-duty soldiers and dependent family members who were prescreened as eligible for COVID testing.”

On July 13, in support of a request by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to the Department of Defense, he was deployed to Houston as a part of the department’s ongoing COVID operations, “supporting our whole-of-government response efforts.”

“As part of an 86-person Army Urban Augmentation Medical Task Force, I have been providing inpatient care to COVID-positive patients at the United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, where we have established an inpatient COVID ward,” Russell says. “The work has been challenging, but the team here has been phenomenal. I have been doing my part to assist with the team effort as I learn from all of the incredible Army nurses and physicians on the team supporting the civilian hospital staff. There are some true experts here, and I do what I can to support them.”

An important component of the education students in the Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing receive is to learn and experience the benefits of interdisciplinary medical practice and how to implement that training in their career fields. The Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing’s staff and faculty, along with the vast scope of curriculum offered, also work to ensure all graduates are equipped to use critical thinking and to be ready to flourish in their careers and continue to advance their nursing skills.  

“The University of Wyoming Doctor of Nursing program is directed at preparing advanced-practice nurses to provide primary care in an outpatient setting. This being said, the critical thinking skills, self-directed learning approach, clinical experiences and fundamental medical knowledge gained at UW have been a solid foundation to build on as I grow to meet the new demands the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to our citizens,” says Russell, who spent time growing up in Cheyenne and Scottsbluff, Neb.

UW learned of Russell’s work amid the COVID-19 pandemic through an email from his father, John Russell, who works in logistics and purchasing at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center. “I thought UW would like to know what one of their grads was doing,” John Russell wrote.

Sherrill Smith, dean of the Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing, says the school takes great pride in learning about the success of its graduates, especially at a time when graduates of the UW College of Health Sciences are in many cases working “in the trenches,” dealing with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are proud of our UW alumni who are supporting the health care needs of our communities, especially now during a global pandemic,” Smith says. “We love hearing stories like Stephen’s that highlight how our graduates are prepared to make a difference wherever they may be.”

To learn more about the Doctor of Nursing Practice Program offered through the Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing, visit www.uwyo.edu/nursing/programs/dnp/index.html.