UW Health honors veterans and shares one employee's story

At this difficult time, UW Health relies on the talents of hundreds of those who have served and continue to serve our country, including Chief Nurse Executive, Rudy Jackson, who enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1990 and retired from service in 2017.

In his nearly three decades of service Rudy was a combat medic enlisted Soldier, commissioned officer in the Army Nurse Corp assigned to a combat support hospital, and a member of a Civil Affairs Battalion. He was a generalist nurse as well as an emergency room and trauma nurse, and he says his military training has helped him in his role to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The training for combat support hospitals (CSH) is heavily focused on mass casualty situations, deploying resources to appropriately manage patient volumes, regularly report to the tactical operation center and support the troops," said Jackson, who started his role with UW Health in August. "The training and work I did in the CSH is very much the same work I do here. We are focused on the surge, deploying resources, and working with the hospital incident command."

For Jackson, being a member of the military is an honor and a privilege to represent our country and protect its democracy.

"For me, Veteran's Day is a day to show support for all military personnel, all who have served in peacetime or wartime, those that are still with us today and those no longer with us," said Jackson. "I think about the state of our country and those we have lost in defense of the American way of life."

Currently, UW Health employees 562 veterans.