Founders' Day
By Kelsey Stalnaker
More than 70 years ago, F. Edward Hebert, a congressman
from Louisiana, and later chair of the House Armed Services Committee, began
his fight for the creation of a school to help develop an experienced core of
career military physicians to care for the nation’s service members and
families.
On September 21, 1972, his dream was realized when
President Richard M. Nixon signed the Uniformed Services Health Professions
Revitalization Act, creating the Uniformed Services University of the Health
Sciences (USU). Classroom doors opened
in 1976 and the first class of 29 students graduated four years later.
In its 45 years of existence, USU has changed. Physicians
aren’t the only medical professionals needed by the military branches and thus
are no longer the only ones educated by the university. Three different schools
have been added over time. First, the Daniel K. Inouye Graduate School of
Nursing (GSN) was founded in 1993. In its 24 years, GSN has become the
institution of choice for each service branch, with the flexibility in their
curriculum to focus on programs most needed in the field. The school also
stands as one of the nation’s top ranking programs, using final projects from
Doctor of Nursing Practice candidates to identify needs and improvements that
can be made to the healthcare systems in Military Treatment Facilities (MTF)
throughout the country.
2010 saw the rise of a tri-service dental college that offers
dentist residents in more than 29 programs and 17 locations throughout the
country a master’s degree in Oral Biology when they finish. In addition to its
academic curriculum and research projects, USU’s Postgraduate Dental College has
also been influenced by close ties to the other USU schools, creating unique
interdisciplinary studies that coincide with medical and nursing practices in
the larger military healthcare system.
The newest school, the College of Allied Health Sciences
(CAHS), is working with the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Medical Education and
Training Campus (METC) to grant the university’s first undergraduate degrees to
corpsmen and medics completing one of four programs: medical laboratory, surgical,
neurodiagnostic, and nuclear medicine techs. CAHS faculty evaluate the academic
and military training portfolios of METC students to assign transferable
college credits that can lead to an associate’s or bachelor’s degree conferred
by the USU.
USU’s Joint Service Color Guard presented the colors during the opening moments of the University’s 45th Anniversary Founder’s Day celebration. (Image credit: Thomas Balfour) |
Furthering USU’s imprint on the military’s medical
advancements, are the 16 centers, programs, and initiatives developing research
and resources and providing training to benefit the nation’s service members
and their families. Among the centers is DoD’s only brain tissue repository for
combat blast brain injury, the nation’s institute for research and response to
radiation-related events, and multiple partnerships with agencies throughout
both the private and the public sector, and millions of research dollars
awarded.
Today, USU’s medical school alumni make up approximately
25% of the current military physician population and the more recent programs
represent a growing population of all military healthcare staff. The university
currently holds 682 foreign and domestic patents, partnerships with more than
50 MTFs, and a list of alumni in leadership positions a mile long.
Forty-five years has brought a lot of change to the
university, but the intent remains the same, helping to produce the world’s
most competent military medical force – spanning from researchers to doctors –
and learning to care for those in harm’s way.