Alumna Barbara McCormick-Mejias Leaves Lasting Impact as Nurse, Educator and Veteran

United States Air Force Lieutenant Colonel and 十大网络彩票平台大全 nursing alumna Barbara McCormick-Mejias '03, M'07, DNP, RN, 岑, readily admits that the only time she ever truly read a textbook from cover to cover was when 她是 deployed as part of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan following the attacks of September 11, 2001. Though she had been working as a nurse since 1993 and commissioned in the U.S. 1994年加入空军后备护士团, 她是, 当时, enrolled in the RN-to-BSN Nursing Program at 十大网络彩票平台大全.

在进入十大网络彩票平台大全后, 我被征召去服一年现役,麦考密克-梅加斯回忆道.  “我把我一岁的儿子留给了她的丈夫, 雷, a now retired New York City policeman and technical sergeant in the Air Force), 然后去了阿富汗. 圣家学院的教职工都很棒.  他们把我的课本寄到了阿富汗.  I would look for the tail numbers of the plane so I could locate the books.  Technically, I was an online student before it even existed.  My professors were really engaged and worked to keep me on course and in my course. 他们没有让我落后.”

Following deployment, McCormick-Mejias returned to complete her BSN degree in 2003. She earned an MSN at Holy Family in 2007 and completed a doctorate of nursing degree at Drexel University in 2019. She has been honored by her alma mater with the American Service Award (2003) and the 校友 Achievement Award (2020) and is in her 30th year of nursing for Jefferson 健康.

Having served as a critical care air transport nurse in Afghanistan, 她是 deployed to Iraq in 2010 in support of Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom as a CASF (Contingency Aeromedical Staging Facility) nurse, 她在那里评估病人, 协调的关键 care and facilitated the safe medical airlift of casualties. 

“因为2010年冰岛的一次火山爆发, 火山灰影响了我们正常的飞行模式,”她说。. “这很有挑战性。. 不仅是病人的数量增加了, but the conditions it created changed our normal operations.  I used all of my nursing skills in that deployment as we moved more patients than anyone since 9-11.”

McCormick-Mejias was deployed a third-time through the Delaware Air National Guard in support of Delaware Public 健康 Department’s COVID-19 vaccination and testing mission. She has always been up to the challenges of nursing and military service, 很大程度上源于她的成长经历, 包括她很小就失去了父母.

“My mom, herself a nurse, was born on the border of Germany and Poland in 1921,”她说。.  “We used to travel behind the ‘iron curtain’ to Poland for family visits when I was a little girl.  My father, who was in the Army Corps of Engineers in WWII, died when I was seven. 我12岁时母亲去世了. I was born and raised Catholic, and when my parents died, the nuns were always there for me. That’s another reason I really bonded with 十大网络彩票平台大全 and their teneor votis mission. When you see what life is like in other places, it makes you grateful to be an American.  And when you are deployed to places like Afghanistan and Iraq, 你意识到, 即使我们有问题, 我们生活在世界上最好的地方之一.”

Perhaps because she has both nursing and the military in her blood, McCormick-Mejias acknowledges that she would readily welcome another deployment and, 事实上, recently received a waiver beyond the 60-year retirement age that will allow her to serve for an additional three years. 

在退伍军人节，特别是11月11日上午11点.m. – you will find McCormick-Mejias leading the Washington Township, N.J. Veterans Day celebration, where she serves on the Veterans Advisory Board.  She represents Gloucester County as the Department Executive Committeeman for the New Jersey  American Legion and is one of the trustees of the Washington Township VFW. A past president of the New Jersey State Nurses Association for region five serving 卡姆登, 伯灵顿, 坎伯兰, 格洛斯特和塞勒姆县, 她是 recently named 2024 president-elect of the State Emergency Nurses Association.

An adjunct professor of nursing at Thomas Jefferson University and Rutgers University in 卡姆登, McCormick-Mejias now works to develop strategies for nursing recruitment, 保留, 和教育.

“I am working with nursing leaders now to build some really cool things to support nursing,”她说。, “including a dedicated education unit and a retired nursing program. 我也很荣幸能协助. Cindy Hou, a respected infectious diseases doctor, on a federal grant. The project Reducing Risk for Readmission Optimizing Language Access and Improving Equity (ROLE) is a federally-funded grant to promote equitable access to language services in healthcare for 伯灵顿, 卡姆登, 和格洛斯特县.”

Nursing and the military have given McCormick-Mejias both great challenges and great opportunities, 一生的朋友, a slew of accolades and awards (including the 2003 Nurse of the Year Award for Pennsylvania, 新泽西州和特拉华州(护理光谱杂志), 还有一种真正的成就感.

“我曾经是一个学生, 妻子和母亲, 重症监护病房的全职夜班护士, 一个教育家, a commissioned officer and a reservist/guardsman who continues to proudly serve my country,”她说。.  “我很高兴自己选择了护理这个职业. 圣家对我的教育影响很大. Nursing has so many options, and I am happy that I have been able to do so much, for so long.”