ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø will continue its Six O’Clock Series on October 7 with Scott Rhoades, an Indiana County native, discussing “Aerospace Nursing: Preserving Our Past, Advancing Our Future.”
The Six O’Clock Series is free and open to the community. Rhoades’ program will be in the Great Room from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.
Rhoades is a 2006 master’s degree graduate of IUP and a 2012 recipient of IUP’s Young Alumni Achievement Award. He is an assistant professor in Indiana Wesleyan University’s post-licensure nursing program in the School of Nursing and has a 30-year career in healthcare with a diverse background in emergency medical services, emergency nursing, flight nursing, wilderness medicine, and aerospace nursing with experiences in direct patient care, education, research, and administration.
He completed an aerospace nursing graduate internship at NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center and established a regional FAA-accredited Aviation Medical Center.
Rhoades has provided medical support for air show operations for a variety of military and civilian flight performers and served as a nurse reservist for four Space Shuttle launches, including the final flights of the space shuttles Atlantis and Endeavor.
He is the founder and executive director of the Center for Aerospace Nursing Excellence and serves as a representative to NASA’s Health and Human Performance Center at Johnson Space Center in Houston, where he has participated in training astronauts and cosmonauts on medical procedures for spaceflight. He also is a volunteer for Mission Aviation Fellowship and the National Museum of the United States Air Force.
His program will focus on the history of how nurses have contributed to the expanding and evolving aviation and aerospace industry from the very beginning of flight. From active roles as aviators, flight attendants, and flight nurses, to supportive duties in clinical, occupational, and research settings, nurses have served in critical roles in civilian and military aviation and space exploration.
Rhoades also will discuss how nurses continue to provide clinical, administrative, educational, and research expertise in a collaborative approach with other aerospace industry- and healthcare-related disciplines to ensure the health and well-being of aerospace clients and will share new opportunities for nurses in this field.
Miko Rose, founding dean of IUP’s proposed college of osteopathic medicine, was the featured speaker for the September 30 program.