[engaging music] - The VACOM program is nursing students at FSU who have been in the military and they work with different community resources in order to get that outside community type experience.

- As a veteran, that's one thing that we are always taught.

You gotta interact and you have to make sure that your people are first.

And that's the thing that this program does for us.

It puts its people first.

The community is gonna back you, regardless.

They're going to back you.

As long as you're standing steadfast and know what you want in life, they're gonna back you, and that's why I'm here.

- As soon as they begin their nursing journey, they're out here with the paramedics on their first semester, going into patients' homes, meeting those patients, seeing them face to face.

They really get a chance to understand the pathology right away.

The paramedics do a great job of mentoring the students and the students also get the opportunity to see the patient in their home.

They are experiencing where the patient is, like meeting them where they are instead of just in the hospital setting.

And this gives them the opportunity to experience home health, which is something that we don't really do a lot of in their curriculum.

Plus our community is veteran-rich, so this gives the students who are veterans themselves an opportunity to care for veteran patients.

So what brought you to Fayetteville State 'cause we're a long way from Albany, Georgia?

- It's something that I always wanted to do.

And nursing, you always are able to look after your patient and help someone and make sure that no person is left behind.

- Yeah, that's great.

- Yes.

- Do you have anybody in your family that was a nurse?

- No one in my family, I would be the first.

- You'll be the first nurse?

- Yes, Ma'am.

- You'll be a great nurse.

- I thank you.

- Who inspired you to become a nurse?

- Actually my grandmother inspired me.

She passed away in 2013.

- I'm so sorry.

- It was so many questions that she had that no one was able to answer.

And I said to myself, you know, if I was able to answer, maybe I could have helped her.

So basically every time I take on this next role, in my next chapters, as I go along in my semesters, I think of her because I knew that if she had the answers, maybe she still would be... - Aww, you know what, you already sound like a nurse.

'cause you were her advocate then and sounds like you're ready to be somebody's advocate now.

- Oh, thank you so much, I appreciate that.

- Fayetteville is right next door to Fort Bragg and a lot of our soldiers, military population retire here.

So we have a very large population of veterans and they really need that like-minded care.

Being able to provide that with our community paramedics and then especially with our VACOM nurses, we are able to learn more about them, build that deeper connection, establish rapport, and then really find out what's causing their problems to help correct them and to keep them healthy in their home environment.

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