Being a military nurse isn’t easy, especially treating patients close to battle zones.
But treating patients on the front lines is exactly what Major Tracie Coy wanted to do, and it’s why she became a nurse.
CU Nursing student Tracie Coy on deployment. |
“I wanted to become that nurse who takes care of the men and women who were being injured in battle,” she says. “That’s what drew me in, and it almost became my obsession. That specific population really pulled at my heartstrings.”
Coy was in the military when the Iraq War started in 2003, and left service to earn a nursing degree.
The call of military life was strong. She enlisted in the Air Force as a nurse corps officer after graduation. Months later, she was deployed to Afghanistan and treated soldiers in an Army trauma center.
“I remember writing a letter to my parents after there was a mass casualty situation and I told them ‘This is what I came here to do’. There was profound clarity that Afghanistan was where I needed to be at the time,” she says. “The things we saw and had to do were terrible, but it was also exactly why I wanted to become a nurse.”
Continuing Her Education
After being deployed to the Middle East again (in 2016), Coy returned stateside and worked as a flight commander in charge of ER staff at a base in Maryland.
She soon realized she wanted to learn more about teaching, mentoring, and advocating for military doctors, nurses, and paramedics.
Coy enrolled in the University of Colorado College of Nursing at Anschutz Medical Campus in the college’s Master of Science in Nursing Adult-Gerontology Clinical Nurse Specialist (AG-CNS) program.
“I wanted this degree because we’re expected to do this kind of stuff as we become more advanced officers in the military,” she says. “I feel like sometimes we don’t have the expertise or the knowledge, but this degree will allow me to look up research and how to apply it in a military healthcare system.”
An Honor and a Privilege
Coy says her role in the military is very humbling and takes her position in healthcare leadership seriously.
“I may not be actively treating patients on the front lines anymore, but I get to do something that’s sometimes even more fulfilling, which is taking the nurses and doctors under my wings and supporting them, advocating for them, and teaching for them,” she says. “I get to serve with the best people, whether they’re someone taking care of a patient or that patient.”
She says teaching and mentoring staff are what drives her to wake up early every day.
“I’m passing the torch (with my nursing knowledge) to the next generation, and it’s so humbling,” she says. “I try to emulate and grab knowledge from previous mentors, leaders, and teachers. The whole thing is very exciting.”
