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Lester Honored for Service
in Highest Traditions of U.S. Army
The U.S. Army Medical Department (AMEDD) has awarded the Order of Military Medical Merit to Rodney C. Lester, Ph.D., associate professor and director of the Nurse Anesthesia Division at The University of Texas School of Nursing at Houston.
Col. Normalynn Garrett, Ph.D., presents the Order of Military
Medical Merit to Rodney C. Lester, Ph.D., associate professor
at the UT School of Nursing at Houston. Photo by Ester Fant
Lester, who is a retired colonel in the Army Nurse Corps, received a bronze medallion and certificate Nov. 15 in a special ceremony attended by his family at the nursing school. He served 28 years on active and reserve duty.
“The products of Colonel Lester’s work are the hundreds of practitioners in the medical and nursing specialties in the AMEDD,” said Col. Normalynn Garrett, Ph.D., chief of the Anesthesia Nursing Branch at the AMEDD center and school at Fort Sam Houston. Garrett nominated Lester and presented the award.
“His dedication to the AMEDD and to all his students are examples to all who have served with him and are in keeping with the highest traditions of the Army Medical Department and the United States Army,” she said.
A certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA), Lester provided life-saving anesthesia care in 1967-68 for areas with some of the largest mass casualties in Vietnam. After his reserve unit was mobilized to support Operation Desert Shield in 1990, his expertise in clinical anesthesia and his educational proficiency led to his appointment as adjunct faculty for the Army Graduate Program in Anesthesia Nursing. Later he became chief of professional services.
“We’ve had a really good relationship between the UT School of Nursing and the Army since I came here in 1993,” Lester said. “I still remain in contact with some of those early students.”
Lester has been recognized by students and peers as a master teacher. The anesthesia master’s degree program at the School of Nursing boasted a 100 percent pass rate on the National Certification Examination for May 2005 graduates.
For eight years between 1992 and 2003, Lester served on the board of directors of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA), serving as president in 2003. The AANA is the professional association representing 30,000 CRNAs nationwide.
He championed the importance of CRNAs as the sole anesthesia providers in the Army Forward Surgical Teams, special operations units, and other isolated military and civilian areas. He supported a landmark Memorandum of Agreement between the Army and the Department of Veterans Affairs to increase the number of CRNAs available to take care of wounded veterans.
Lester also has served as a member of the board of directors and president of the Texas Association of Nurse Anesthetists.
By Ina Fried, Public Affairs