After getting dropped off in a parking lot in Japan, then being tasked with building a field hospital made of tents and operating rooms became a fellow Otterbein student's mission. This was the reality of junior nursing major Joanne Theresa “JT” Davis and her medical unit during summer 2021 simulation training.
Davis enlisted in the Army Medical Corps in 2018 after her first year studying at Otterbein University. She wasn’t sure if college was the right fit and wanted to take a gap year. As a first-generation member of the military, Davis was inspired by military commercials encouraging her to serve her country.
Following her enlistment, Davis endured 12 weeks of basic training and completed the surgical tech program -- typically a one-to-two-year training -- in just six months. In order to graduate, she was required to assist with 120 surgeries, including specialty procedures like ear, nose and throat; labor and delivery; and urology.
“They wanted us to not be specialized in one area, but to be able to do everything,” Davis says about her training.
After her gap year, Davis returned to college, balancing military training while working toward her bachelor’s degree in nursing with minors in nutrition and health communication.
Davis and her unit were sent to Japan for annual training to gain a more realistic experience of what a military medical deployment would involve during conflict. Her unit had only 72 hours to create a fully functioning field hospital with electricity, running water and air conditioning. The team completed this task in 18.5 hours.
“During our Japan mission, I was incredibly impressed by SPC [Specialist] Davis,” says 1st Lt. Jennifer Von Tress-Peretin, Davis’ superior. “This was her first overseas mission, and she embraced every challenge that came her way. I was most impressed by her ability to adapt to different surroundings and seamlessly blend into different cultural settings.”
One of Davis’ most striking memories of the challenges that her team faced was setting up an operating room in a parking lot.
“We have tents, we have air conditioning and everything; we have to do running water,” explains Davis. “We started in a parking lot and then set up this whole thing. The ORs [operating rooms] actually look like storage containers, like big storage containers, so you would have no idea until you opened it up that it was even an operating room.”
She notes that in a typical situation, surgeons are assigned one patient. During a war, a surgeon could be assigned up to two beds.
Davis and her team of just over 100 stayed in Japan for five weeks, conducting additional training and simulations of what it would be like to run a patient through the hospital.
Although for most of the five weeks the group was confined to their parking lot, they were allotted three days to explore Tokyo.
“The food was great. I loved it. My friends -- I didn’t personally -- but they had horse sashimi, so like raw horse, and I was like, ‘I might pass on this one,’ ” laughs Davis.
Davis isn’t sure what the future will hold, but she’s interested in working as an OR nurse after her experience as a surgical tech. She also has three years left on her military contract, which means Davis may be doing more international traveling. Next year, she might have the opportunity to return to Japan for a similar simulation on a much larger scale or be sent somewhere new, like Honduras.
