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Rear Adm. Karen Flaherty, Deputy Commander Force Integration National Capital Area and Deputy Chief of the Navy Nurse Corps, talks with Philip Smith, M.D., medical director of the Center for Biopreparedness Education, during a visit to the medical center as part of Omaha’s Navy Week. |
Last Tuesday, Flaherty met with Pam Bataillon, associate professor and assistant dean for administration in the College of Nursing, to discuss issues of importance to nursing, including the growing need to recruit academic nursing faculty to teach the next generation of nurses.
Flaherty then visited the 10-bed, biocontainment unit in University Tower, which is set up to handle highly contagious and deadly infectious conditions.
She was joined by Lt. Wallace Dawkins of Lincoln, public affairs officer for the Navy Office of Community Outreach (NAVCO); Lt. Robert Johnson of Millington, Tenn., Navy Personnel Command Communications Office; Chief Mass Communication Specialist Gary Ward of Phoenix, naval photography; and Randy Boldt of Lincoln, director of field services for Medico.
Flaherty serves as Deputy Commander Force Integration National Capital Area and Deputy Chief of the Navy Nurse Corps. She also is associate director for patient/nursing services at the Veterans Affairs Medal Center in Philadelphia.
While in Omaha, Flaherty met with several Rotarian groups, visited young patients at Children’s Hospital and met with Mayor Mike Fahey, who gave her a key to the city.
Omaha’s Navy Week (April 30 through May 6) is one of 26 Navy weeks planned across America in 2007. It is in conjunction with the Offutt Air Force Base’s 2007 Defenders of Freedom Air Show, which is May 5-6.
Navy weeks are designed to show Americans the investment they have made in their Navy and increase awareness in cities that do not have a significant everyday Navy presence.