Lt. Gen. Patricia D. Horoho, the first nurse and first woman appointed, became the Army's 43rd surgeon general Dec. 7 in a ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall.

She was nominated to the position by President Barack Obama May 10 and was later approved by the Senate.

She succeeds Lt. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker, who will retire in January.

"Over the past decade, Army medicine has led the joint health effort in the most austere environments." Horoho said. "As part of the most decisive and capable land force in the world, we stand ready to adapt."

A decade of this war, she said, has left a fighting force with both physical and psychological scars.

"We are dedicated to identifying and caring for those Soldiers who have sustained psychological and physical trauma associated with an Army engaged in a protracted war," she said, adding that the war fighter does not stand alone.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, who passed the U.S. Army Medical Command flag to Horoho in a ceremony Dec. 5 at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, promoted her to lieutenant general and administered the oath to swear her in as the Army's top medical officer.

"The Army cannot provide trained and ready forces to the nation without our talented medical professionals and leaders. In everything we do, we rely on medical command and the surgeon general to set the vision for this community and have the courage to carry it out," Odierno said.

Horoho has commanded the Army Nurse Corps since 2008, when she received a rare two-grade promotion from colonel to major general.

As Army surgeon general, she will direct the third-largest healthcare system in the United States, behind the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Hospital Corporation of America.

With an annual budget of $13.5 billion, the surgeon general manages more than 480 facilities and 29 executive agencies, many of which lead groundbreaking research efforts. She also oversees 140,000 military and civilian employees, and more than 3.5 million beneficiaries, globally.

The Army surgeon general's impact, said Odierno, extends far beyond the Army to the national and the international level, collaboration and partnership with other public and private entities on research, standards of practices, national leadership in areas such as brain injury, concussive disorders, mental health promotion and pain management.

"This position requires a special officer who can lead change and achieve unity of effort in a dynamic, joint interagency and also in a multi-national role, working with our allies and partners around the world," Odierno explained. "For these reasons, it's important to pick the right person. And we are absolutely, incredibly lucky to have Lieutenant General Patty Horoho as the 43rd Army surgeon general."

"She's earned this extremely important leadership position, not only because of her incredible past performance and achievements, but more importantly her outstanding potential, as she will lead Medical Command and lead as the Army surgeon general," Odierno said, adding that her 28 years of experience and education will prove to be "an inspiration for many others."

"Army medicine," Horoho said, "has a responsibility to all those who serve, to include family members, and our retirees who have already answered the call to our nation. We will fully engage our patients in all aspects of their healthcare experience at each touch point, starting with the initial contact.

"We will make the right care available at the right time by demonstrating compassion to those we serve and value to our stakeholders. The collective healthcare experience is driven by a team of professionals partnering with the patient, focused on health, health promotion and disease prevention to enhance wellness.

One of Army medicine's greatest challenges over the next three to five years, she said, is managing the escalating cost of providing world-class healthcare in a fiscally constrained environment.

"I see these challenges as windows of opportunity for us to shape the future of Army medicine and I am confident, regardless of the environment or the landscape, we will meet all challenges in true Army medicine fashion -- with innovation, dignity and strength. Together, we will usher in the new era of possibilities.

While deployed to Afghanistan, Horoho remembered asking a young medic how he would describe Army medicine.

"He replied, 'We carry healthcare on our backs.' As we sit here today there are young men and women willing to put their lives on the line to protect the freedoms we enjoy as Americans. Thank God we have young medics who are carrying innovative quality and precision healthcare on their backs, regardless of risk to personal safety. This is our privilege. This is our honor, and this is why Army medicine will face all challenges with strength, resolve and dedicated focus," she said.

As a Registered Nurse, Horoho earned her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of North Carolina, her Master of Science degree as a clinical trauma nurse specialist from the University of Pittsburgh. She is a resident graduate of the Army's Command and General Staff College and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, where she earned a second Master of Science degree in National Resource Strategy.

Other military assignments include: Sstaff nurse on a multi-service specialty ward, staff and head nurse of a level III emergency department, Evans Army Community Hospital, Fort Carson, Colo.; nurse counselor, 1st Recruiting Brigade (Northeast) with duty at Harrisburg and Pittsburgh Recruiting Battalions; head nurse of a 22-bed emergency department, Womack Army Medical Center, Fort Bragg, N.C.; chief nurse and hospital commander of a 500-bed field hospital, 249th General Hospital, Fort Gordon, Ga.; assistant branch chief, Army Nurse Corps Branch, United States Total Army Personnel Command, Alexandria, Va.; assistant deputy for Healthcare Management Policy in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Manpower and Reserve Affairs), Pentagon, Washington, D.C.; deputy commander for nursing and commander of the DeWitt Health Care Network, Fort Belvoir, Va.; and deputy commander for nursing, Walter Reed Army Medical Center and North Atlantic Regional Medical Command, Washington, D.C.

Recognitions include being selected in 1993 by "The Great 100" as one of the top hundred nurses in the state of North Carolina. In the same year, she was selected as Fort Bragg's supervisor of the year. She deployed to Haiti with the Army's first Health Facility Assessment Team.

After she co-authored a chapter on training field hospitals that was published by the U.S. Army Reserve Command surgeon in 1998, Horoho was honored Dec. 3, 2001, by Time Life Publications for her actions on Sept. 11, 2001, at the Pentagon.

She was among 15 nurses selected Sept. 14, 2002, by the American Red Cross and Nursing Spectrum to receive national recognition as a "Nurse Hero." In 2007, she was honored as a University of Pittsburgh Legacy Laureate. In April 2009, she was selected as the USO's "Woman of the Year," and in May 2009, she became an affiliate faculty with Pacific Lutheran University School of Nursing, Tacoma, Wash.

"And most recently, she was deployed to Afghanistan as a special assistant to the commander of International Security Assistance Force Joint Command -- incredible, impeccable credentials,' Odierno said.

"With Soldiers deployed, taking care of families, taking care of wounded warriors -- exactly the kind of leader we want to be our surgeon general," he added.

On Aug. 29, 1898, Dr. Anita Newcomb broke new ground for the Office of the Surgeon General by becoming the first woman to hold the office of acting assistant surgeon, Department of the Army. She was assigned to the Surgeon General's Office as superintendent of the Army Nurse Corps, which she organized.

Another nurse, Maj. Gen. Gale Pollock, served as acting Army surgeon general from March through December 2007, temporarily filling the post after Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley was relieved as a result of aging facilities at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. But Horoho is the first nurse and first woman to be nominated for the position and confirmed by Congress.

Source: www.army.mil/article/70556

Nigerian Physicians want that office.
Will they ever allow a Nurse there?

Samgreguc: Nigerian Physicians want that office.
Will they ever allow a Nurse there?

After over 200 years American physicians allowed the first nurse. Nigerian physicians have atleast 150 years to monopolise the position before it becomes a bone of contention.

is she the Army's surgeon general or the nations surgeon general in charge of public health?
if she is not,who is the nations surgeon general and what are his/her qualifications?

The U.S. Surgeon General is nominated by the
President of the United States and confirmed
by a majority vote of the Senate . The Surgeon
General serves a four-year term of office and,
depending on whether the current Assistant
Secretary for Health is a PHSCC commissioned
officer or not, is the senior or second-highest
ranking uniformed officer of the PHSCC, holding
the rank of a vice admiral . [1]
The current Acting Surgeon General is Rear Admiral Boris Lushniak , who was named to the position following Regina Benjamin 's resignation on July 16, 2013.
native of Chicago, Illinois, Lushniak is
of Ukrainian ancestry, went to St. Ignatius
College Prep and is a graduate of the Feinberg
School of Medicine at Northwestern University
and Harvard School of Public Health

The Surgeon General of the United States Army
Patricia D. Horoho (born 1960) is a United States Army lieutenant general and the 43rd U.S. Army
Surgeon General and Commanding General of
the U.S. Army Medical Command.

She is the first female and first Nurse Corps Officer to hold those appointments

Horoho was born in Fort Bragg in 1960, and attended St. Ann Catholic
School and St. Patrick Catholic School in
Fayetteville , North Carolina and graduated
from E.E. Smith High School in 1978. [1] She
earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in
1982 and the Master of Science Degree as a
Clinical Trauma Nurse Specialist from the
University of Pittsburgh in 1992.


The Surgeon General of the United States
Air Force
This the senior-most Medical Service officer in the U.S. Air Force .
In recent times, this has been a Lieutenant General who serves as head of the United States Air Force Medical Service (AFMS).
The Surgeon General is usually the senior Medical Corps officer, but acting surgeons general have been from other branches of the medical service.
The incumbent,General Travis entered the Air Force in 1976 as a distinguished graduate of the ROTC program
at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University. He was awarded his pilot wings in 1978 and served as an F-4 pilot and aircraft commander. The general completed his medical
degree from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences School of Medicine, where he was the top Air Force graduate, and in 1987 he became a flight surgeon

Surgeon General of the United States Navy
This article is about the senior physician
in the United States Navy
November 2011, VADM Matthew L.
Nathan , took office becoming the 37th
Surgeon General of the United States Navy,and 41st Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery.
Nathan received his Bachelors of Science
from Georgia Tech and his M.D. from the
Medical College of Georgia in 1981. He
completed Internal Medicine specialty
training in 1984 at the University of South
Florida .

dr cakes..... thank you. people just copy and paste things they don't understand..

Samgreguc: Nigerian Physicians want that office.
Will they ever allow a Nurse there?

The position is the Surgeon-General in the USA Army. In the Army anywhere in the world, the highest ranking officer gets to be the Head whether Nurse or Doctor. The Nurse happens to be the highest ranking officer so she got the position. There is a Public Health Surgeon-General in the USA who is always a Medical Doctor. Nigerian Doctors are asking for the Public health Surgeon-General not military Surgeon-General.

why would they be asking for such post? Is that what we need as a nation at this point in time? how will this position improve the health of the masses? don't we already have director of public health in the ministry of health? will heaven fall if he performs the role of the so called surgeon-general? Besides the SGF is a public health position. Don't know why we as a nation like big titles sha

thegeneral84: The position is the Surgeon-General in the USA Army. In the Army anywhere in the world, the highest ranking officer gets to be the Head whether Nurse or Doctor. The Nurse happens to be the highest ranking officer so she got the position. There is a Public Health Surgeon-General in the USA who is always a Medical Doctor. Nigerian Doctors are asking for the Public health Surgeon-General not military Surgeon-General.

RESPECT

CONGRATS MA!!!!!WOMEN LIKE U INSPIRE ME

Lol... Good news anyway.
Read my signature.

GENDER EQUALITY?

Girl power.

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GOod

Nice

sounds like ororo

I dey think say the matter concerned our country sef only to find out say na USA dem dey talk about . America wey sabi everything, abeg how will dis bring back our girls now wey be say na cows dem dey bring back for us?
Congratulations to Lt. Gen. Patricia Horoho... Nigeria will get there one day.

dear Lord

200 years. ...

wow...issorait

congratulation my would be mother-inlaw

*am dating her daughter*

ok.

HMMM

Abegii,stop the Misdirection,that Post is in Army,and it devolved to her by mere Virtue of her Military Rank.

[b][/b]now johesu will see this now and out of ignorance nor go let doctors hear word again

Congrat ma, the same way I will be the first Nigerian to win ballon d'orr

Ororo

Congrats Ma! U are indeed a Role Model*Kudos*







Ask a female nursing student who her role model is and she will tell u "Genevieve Nnaji" pls change it to Lt. Gen. Patricia D. Horoho !!!!

The op should have added United States to the title.

R