Excerpted with permission from an article by Linda Childers which appeared in Nurse Week. © 2005, Gannett Healthcare Group (www.nurse.com). All rights reserved.
When Navin Sharma, ' 79, ' 81, couldn’t find the perfect job, he created it.
In 1997, Sharma discovered a way to merge his experience in nursing with a career in law enforcement. He was working as a full-time police officer with the Vancouver (Wash.) Police Department. Sharma, who began working as a nurse in the early 1990s, continued to work on call as an emergency room nurse at Providence Portland Medical Center, in Portland, Ore.
Sharma is credited as the driving force behind creating the tactical emergency medic unit for his police department. He remembers approaching the SWAT team’s commander about the idea of assigning specially trained emergency medical technicians to the team.
"I gave him a scenario where the airway of one of his SWAT officers was compromised," Sharma says. "If the fire truck, which was several blocks away, responded to the call, it would have taken approximately six minutes, and the officer would have died."
Sharma then illustrated how a tactical emergency medic on the SWAT team could quickly intubate the officer or begin performing advanced life support within a matter of seconds.
"Ambulances and fire department paramedics aren't usually versed in the tactics of a SWAT team or the riot squad and aren't equipped for a situation where they could come under fire," Sharma says.
"Having a trained medic working as part of the SWAT or riot units can mean the difference between life and death."
The TEMS team now boasts four medics, including two EMTs and one paramedic, and was the first police-based team in Washington to offer advanced life support services, including medications, IVs and some advanced trauma life support surgical procedures.
Sharma says his background as an emergency nurse brings a fresh perspective to his police work. He served as a volunteer firefighter, an emergency medical technician and later a paramedic before going through nursing school.
Sharma found his work addicting and hopes his own nontraditional career path will inspire other nurses to consider second careers as tactical emergency medical personnel. However, after 10 years in law enforcement, he is no longer a police officer.
"I still work at Providence Hospital in the emergency department as a staff emergency and trauma RN and am involved in training," Sharma said in a recent e-mail from Portland.
"The TEMS unit I helped set up is doing very well and continues to provide quality care to the citizens and officers during every critical mission."
Sharma was recently appointed to the Oregon State Trauma Advisory Board and he made contributions to Tactical Emergency Medicine, the first textbook on the subject.
