Another 0700 wake up in order to eat and meet by 0800 for a day filled with briefings. We enjoyed a briefing on infection control, a meet and great with the newest commander at Landstuhl, LTC Elliott, and other powerpoint briefings on safety, patient care, other options for us in the Army, and our project assignments while we are here. After a nice lunch break we met the Colonel of the hospital, COL Ashley who gave us a welcome brief and opened himself up for candid questions from us as a group. It is really nice to be in a hospital where all the branches are working together and so accepting and welcoming to us as future LT’s, it is rare to have this tri-service camaraderie. We have been overwhelmed by the want of the highest commanding officers here to meet and speak to us as a group. From the Second Lieutenants and our preceptors, mostly First Lieutenants, to the LTC’s and COL’s here, it has been a pleasant surprise at how we are being treated.
Around 1700 we were finished for the night and we grabbed a quick dinner before Jen and I went on a run to explore some more. We took a trail to an old lookout tower and were able to climb to the top and lookout over Landstuhl and Ramstein. It was such a neat feeling to be so high up in such an old piece of architecture and needless to say it was an amazing view of this small town in Germany! We went back to the barracks later to get changed for the night, spent some time in the internet café, ate a ‘midnight snack’ and even met Jen’s 1LT preceptor while we were in the hospital late that night. It was great to talk to her about her time in the ICU and the experiences she has had. Once again we walked away with goose bumps and a little more anxiety about our upcoming shifts. Day four was approaching fast and with only about 4 hours of sleep from the night before we went to bed!
