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Army nurse graduates with tools to heal soldiers' minds by Heather Woolwine Public Relations Capt. Kevin Gormley, R.N., has experienced more in his 38 years then most people will in a lifetime.   His former patients at Walter Reed Medical Center included world leaders, kings and queens, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and President Bush. He was in Washington, D.C., during Sept. 11, 2001, the anthrax scare, and the sniper shootings. He’s an active military captain who in mere weeks will assume command for more than 1,400 troops bound for Iraq.   It’s easy to become spellbound by his tales of nursing in the nation’s capital, aghast at his intense 9-11 experiences, and concerned for the future of his unit when they leave the states. But for all the incredible stories, Gormley predicts his best yet will follow his graduation from the College of Nursing’s master’s program.   Registered nurse and CON Master of Science in Nursing graduate Kevin Gormley, center, and his family discuss their upcoming move to Washington. “The thing about all of this is that I didn’t even want to go back to school,” Gormley said. “I had a master’s degree in human resources, and I was getting ready to go to Iraq. A friend of mine suggested that I just go ahead and put in for the Army’s graduate study program.”   Gormley seems selected by the stars to do great things in the face of adversity.   He was raised by a single father in the Philadelphia-New Jersey area until his father died during his freshman year of high school. “It was tough, and I’m guessing this probably wouldn’t happen today, but I just got a job at McDonald’s and finished school. I never knew my mother and there wasn’t any other family so I just did what I needed to do.”   Shortly after completing high school, Gormley married his sweetheart, Kelly, his wife of 19 years. After six years working various jobs and the birth of daughter Kirstie, 16, Gormley enlisted in the Army. As time moved on, Gormley watched his wife find satisfaction in becoming a nurse. “I really enjoyed her stories and she’s been my motivation in becoming a nurse,” he said. Two more children followed, Elijah, 8, and Leiah, 4. Gormley became the first person at the infantry level to be accepted to a nursing program.   Once he completed his degree, Gormley began working as a medical-surgical nurse at Reynolds Army Hospital, Fort Sill, Okla. He worked with younger women who received various obstetric and gynecological procures, including hysterectomies, and developed a program to assist female patients and their partners before and after surgery. His techniques included journal keeping and counseling on the changes a woman may experience after these types of surgeries. He then moved to the psychiatric ward at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C.   Seeing his fellow soldiers wrestling with psychiatric disorders, he felt a strong calling to remain a psychiatric nurse. But, Gormley’s personality and professional demeanor made him the perfect candidate for head nurse in the Eisenhower ward of the same medical center. After he was approached for the third time about heading up the unit, and with constant encouragement from his wife, he accepted the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It was there he met  politicians and celebrities who relied on him for confidential, high-quality health care. “I’m not a political person and I was caught up in so much while I was there. I began at Walter Reed six months before 9-11 and participated in body recovery at the Pentagon. I had a conversation with the Secretary of Transportation, Norman Mineta, about his ordeal that day and to say that man had to deal with a lot is a vast understatement. It was really interesting to know so many high-profile people on such an intimate level. I always had my eye on psychiatry, though. When celebrities would come to visit the rest of the soldiers in the hospital, I would remind them of their duty to visit the guys in psych, too. I mean, these are people who are free to make $13 million dollars a movie, and the soldiers who go overseas to defend them make $2,000 a month. I hope they feel they have a responsibility to the community to give back. Psychiatric illness is just as devastating and real as any other disease.”   During his stint as head nurse, Gormley was approached by his colonel to apply for the long-term schooling program in the Army. Essentially a very selective graduate education track, he was one of two to receive the endorsement to continue school. He was able to select a school on the east coast, and was accepted to the University of Florida.   Once again, fate stepped in.   “I met a nurse at Walter Reed who received her degree from MUSC and couldn’t say enough wonderful things about the nursing program. I decided to investigate,” he said.   After an hour on the phone with Janet Grossman, Ph.D., CON associate professor, “I felt like she knew me. I was in awe of her passion for nursing and I decided right then to go check out MUSC.” Gormley, as the president’s nurse, didn’t have much time off. He drove to Charleston and back in one day, and having met with Grossman and seen the beach at the Isle of Palms, his mind was made. The hard part was convincing his wife. “My wife really wanted to go to Florida but then she decided to trust me and my decision. She’s been great about it. It all has turned into a real blessing.” Nursing: It’s a guy thing, too As a student in the CON master’s program, Gormley jumped in head first. “Some of us were seasoned nurses when I enrolled in the 18-month program and it was great to interact with those who had years of experience and others with less,” Gormley said. “My fellow students and colleagues were great and it’s a pretty special group over there in psych.”   Of course, for a devoted soldier like Gormley, watching his brothers and sisters in arms go to war in Iraq while he went to school wasn’t easy. “I’m still a soldier 24/7 and it’s difficult to watch them go to war and get killed. The whole time though, Dr. Grossman was there and a great help in getting me to focus on what I had to do here. I really hope to mirror myself after her. Jan doesn’t just cut you off after graduation either; she’s a colleague and a friend for life. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be here.”   In addition to the mentorship of Grossman, Gormley spoke of his respect for other faculty members; including Charlene Pope, Ph.D. “She’d get our class so excited. She has an intense social and cultural sensitivity and although maybe our opinions didn’t always match, she let me be who I am without condemning me.”   Gormley also found time to volunteer while pursuing his degree, most notably in classrooms in the area. With the group Guys in Ties, Gormley presented himself as a soldier and a caregiver, a somewhat complex occupation for little ones to understand. “When the children see a military uniform, they’re kind of in awe. When they see a male nurse, many of them make prejudgments about sexuality. The best thing to do is to respond to their questions honestly because they are open, and sometimes even blunt. The important thing for them to know is that there are ways to deal with issues regarding color, race, gender, and other barriers to make the choices in their careers that they want to. Their energy and enthusiasm is contagious and I loved meeting with them.”    The one cause of frustration for Gormley while volunteering was his ineligibility for mentorships with young girls interested in nursing. “I understand the precautions and stereotypes, but how are we going to promote that mentors can be of any gender and so on when they won’t let a man mentor a young lady? It seemed like a double standard to me. In the military, nursing is 50 percent male, so some of the issues I’ve had to deal with as a male nurse in a civilian environment were new to me.”   A believer in true altruism, Gormley plans to approach his new nursing adventures with a fresh perspective in dealing with patients and colleagues. “I look at people for who they are. They’re not always going to change so you have to find a way to develop their treatment or how they care for others around that.” He’s a believer in therapeutic use of self, meaning that everyone, even naysayers, can bring something to the proverbial table. Gormley believes that with as much energy that goes into caring for psychiatry patents, just as much should go into developing psychiatric nurses. “We need to teach others how to manage people and the scenarios around them in regards to who they are. Ownership of the nursing process should some how become part of the curriculum. I want to see collaborative environments in nursing that value nurses as more than just task-masters. If you expect the best from everyone you work with, even embracing those who are ‘in it’ for whatever reason, you can devise a course of action to make them even better. According to Peggy McLaughlin, Kelly’s and my grandmother, ‘you get more bees with honey than vinegar.’” Headed West With a future in Washington state, Gormley is packing up his family to begin command of his troops. He will begin his nursing career once again in psychiatry and is anxious to get started. “This is a situation where the suicide rates for Iraq veterans are three times that of Vietnam, PTSD [post traumatic stress disorder] is rampant and manifests differently for all those that it affects, and this is the time that I have more knowledge and understanding to treat these problems. I love being a mental health nurse because I feel confident that I can help and make a difference. Divorce rates, lost jobs and other upheavals are a part of what active duty, reservists, and national guardsmen are going through and no one was really prepared to handle what they’ve had to face since coming home, least of all them. I feel blessed to be a part of the Army Nurse Corp where I can help men and women dealing with mental health issues and help them break down barriers to care and recovery. I’m really just a boring Irish Catholic guy who wants to make people better.”   Far from boring, Gormley and his family look forward to living in their new home, the first one purchased by the nursing couple. After living in the Lowcountry and the politically charged climate of D.C., Gormley and his family are excited about life on the west coast. Saving a life in his own backyard Several weeks ago, a 14-year-old girl suffered a surfing accident on the Isle of Palms. Gormley and his family were on the beach that day, and it is Gormley and his wife, Kelly, that she has to thank for the quick thinking that saved her life.   As the family played on the beach, Gormley noticed two young girls in waist high water, one obviously leaning on the other, and both having trouble reaching the shore. “That’s when I saw the 3-foot pool of blood around them,” he recalled. “She was losing liters of blood and my first reaction was to get her out of the water. I began yelling for someone to call 9-1-1 and my wife, the seasoned emergency nurse, began going for clean towels and supplies. She was also fighting to keep the crowd back.”   The girl’s wound showed muscle tissue and bone. After assessing that her femoral artery in her thigh had been slashed by her surfboard fin, Gormley did only what he could think of next: he found the cut artery and clamped it shut with his own hand. “I’m a psych guy, not an ER nurse, but the Army trains us and prepares us for any situation. My wife was busy trying to take care of everything else and since I’d reached her first, keeping her from bleeding out became my mission.”   Later, as the girl cried in pain, Gormley assured her. “I kept telling her, ‘it’s OK sweetie; let it hurt; it’s a good sign if it’s hurting.’ I knew that if she was in pain, then she might be able to recover from the nerve damage she may have had.” The girl’s color worsened. “Like I said, I’m a psych guy,” he said with a chuckle. “Seriously though, I was connecting with this other human being. Knowing that she would die if she didn't have help in the next few minutes was a very tough thing to go through.”   Later, after the paramedics transported the girl to MUSC, Gormley heard a knock on his door. The girl’s father broke down while thanking Gormley. Gormley admits he shed a few tears, as well. “It was an incredibly emotional experience and I just told him, ‘hey, I understand, I have a daughter, too.’”     Friday, May 19, 2006 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Island Publication at 849-1778, ext. 201.