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In Afghanistan Embedded Training Teams, or ETTs,
have been deployed by the Department of Defense
to help develop, train, and sustain a healthcare system for Afghan National Security Forces.
Last year ETTs implemented the first licensed vocational nursing program,
using a similar model to the U.S. Army's.
This 1-year program will train students to become nurses in a short period of time.
It gives the hospitals trained nurses three times faster than in the past
the current ratio of nurses to patients in the Intensive Care Unit
because in the past it's been a 3-year program.
At this hospital that serves both the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police,
is 1 nurse to every 8 patients.
Compared to hospitals in the United States, where there is normally 1 nurse to 1 patient in the ICU,
the need for more nurses is evident.
This October more than 20 students will become nurses ready to fill these positions.
In my opinion, starting this course was a revolution in Afghanistan.
Nurses are now being trained professionally.
The benefits of these nurses, however, reach far beyond these hospital beds.
This course has excellent value because we are in the military.
If we go to faraway provinces or dangerous places,
there might not be a hospital or clinic.
We can try to help a patient in those areas because of our training in this class.
If someone asks me, "Has the Afghan healthcare system progressed"
"and did you have an impact?" I would tell them in no uncertain terms, "Yes."
[♪techno music playing♪] That's the Army Today.