Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1342648
8 Working Nurse l WorkingNurse.com February 22-March 29, 2021 ON THE QUICK Nursing & Healthcare News F or the second time in just four years, the U.S. has a nurse serving as acting surgeon gen- eral: Rear Adm. Susan Orsega, FNP- BC, FAANP, FAAN. Second Nurse Leader President Biden appointed Orsega as acting surgeon general in late January, after the outgoing surgeon general, Jerome Adams, M.D., MPH, resigned at the president's request. Orsega, a career U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) officer, is the first nurse practitioner and the second practicing RN to hold the interim act- ing surgeon general role. (Prior to Adams' appointment, Rear Adm. Sylvia Trent-Adams, RN, Ph.D., FAAN, briefly served as acting surgeon gen- eral following the firing of Vivek Murphy, M.D., MBA, in April 2017.) Murphy may soon succeed Orsega. The president has asked the former surgeon general to resume that role for the next four years, although Murphy's nomination must first be confirmed by the Senate. Public Health Champion Orsega has served with USPHS since 1989. She was the service's chief nurse officer from 2016 to October 2019, when she was promoted to director of USPHS Commissioned Corps Headquarters. In that role, she was a principal advisor to the sur- geon general on USHPS deployment and workforce issues. The service's Commissioned Corps includes about 6,100 officers, about 4,500 of them nurses. Naturally, their current focus is COVID-19, but USPHS has been involved in many public health and humanitarian initia- tives here and abroad. Orsega herself is no stranger to public health emergencies like the current COVID-19 crisis. She has been part of 15 major disaster/ humanitarian deployments since 1994, including an elite post-9/11 medical team. In 2015, for example, she was part of the National Institute of Health/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases team that ran the first human trials of Ebola vaccine in Liberia and Sierra Leone. In 2016, she received the Health and Human Service (HHS) Secretary's Award for Distinguished Service. Sophia L. Thomas, APRN, DNP, FNP-BC, PPCNP-BC, FNAP, FAANP, president of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (of which Orsega is a fellow), lauds Orsega's "unrivaled expertise in both public health and disaster relief, [which] are exactly what our nation needs to nav- igate our country's current health- care challenges." WN America's Nurse Practitioner General? NP Susan Orsega becomes acting surgeon general INFECTIOUS DISEASE SPECIALIST In addition to her Ebola work, Orsega — a veteran of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — is a subject matter expert on HIV/AIDS nursing practice. AANP President Sophia L. Thomas calls Orsega "a longtime champion of public health."