A Major Asset to Team Pope Published March 23, 2007 By Airman Mindy Bloem Staff Writer POPE AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. -- Imagine yourself in this situation: On a deployment to Iraq, you encounter a patient who was recently engaged by the enemy and had suffered a gunshot wound to his face. This patient is in serious need of hospitalization. As he is being airlifted to a hospital in Baghdad, you must work with a manual ventilation system to force air into his lungs via a tube, since a mechanical ventilation system is not available. To make matters worse, during the transport, your patient awakens and, in a panic, tears the tube from his throat and blood goes everywhere. You must make the decision to land at a closer base to give your patient the best chance for survival. Meanwhile, the pilot is yelling that he must get out of the area to avoid enemy fire. You explain the importance of landing at the closer base and the pilot complies. The landing is successful, and the patient is treated and stabilized. This story may sound like a character portrayed in some Hollywood blockbuster, but for Maj. Joyce Fiedler, 43rd Aeromedical-Dental Squadron, this was just another day on the job as an Air Force flight doctor. In addition to being a flight surgeon, Major Fiedler is a board certified internist and flight commander of flight medicine, and still manages to see patients on a regular basis. Major Fiedler admits her job can be stressful but is quick to credit her staff with alleviating some of that stress. "My job can be very stressful, but I have outstanding medics who work with me, and, as a result, we get very few patient complaints," said Major Fiedler. Moreover, since Major Fiedler has worked in medicine in the private sector before joining the military, she is aware of the difference between civilian medicine and military medicine. "Sometimes it can be hard as a flight doctor in the military, because you have to worry about so many other aspects of your job besides dealing with the patients," said Major Fiedler. "However, first and foremost, it's about taking care of the patients." Due to these other aspects of the job, she said prioritizing is the key to multi-tasking. Everyone comes to you needing something to be done, Major Fiedler stated. And everyone thinks his task is the most important, so you must learn to prioritize. Major Fiedler is no stranger to lessons in priority. With two deployments under her belt, she has faced many situations where quick decisions of the utmost priority had to be made. Although her two deployments were very different from each other, both provided her with great learning experiences. While deployed to Iraq, Major Fiedler was in constant danger. "We were in direct line of fire. Our location was mortared every night," she said. "It was a very threatening situation, and I worked many acute trauma cases." On the other hand, during her most recent deployment, Major Fiedler recalled a very different assignment. It was an established base with a smaller clinic and was located in a much safer environment, she said. Major Fiedler said she is thankful for both opportunities, as they have aided her maturity in military medicine. And part of that maturity is to understand the big picture in this war. "As a flight surgeon, my mission is to keep military members healthy and flying, so they, in turn, can do their job more effectively," said Major Fiedler. Many challenges are encountered in this profession, and it's a constant process of figuring out ways to overcome those challenges, Major Fiedler said. With every challenge, she tries to incorporate things she has learned in order to succeed. "I have learned good leadership skills are important," she stated. "Strong qualities of empathy are essential as a leader." These qualities will help care for individual needs, as well as support the overall Air Force mission, she added. "I love being in medicine, and it's so rewarding and heartwarming to care for my patients," said Major Fiedler. "I feel dually blessed to be a physician and to be in the Air Force." There is nothing quite like working in the aerospace community, she said.