Nursing Advisor for Afghanistan Army

Kelly Marotte of Chester with a young
patient at the Afghan National Army Hospital.

The Navy lieutenant was stationed in Kabul, and assigned to serve as combat nursing adviser for the Afghanistan army.
The entire Afghan army.
A 26-year-old Chester native, Marotte has the distinction of being the only American adviser helping the Afghans modernize nursing care, a stark contrast from her last job in the infants and children’s unit at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield.
Despite lacking state-of-the art equipment, the 300-bed facility treats combat casualties from hotspots such as Helmand and Kandahar; as surgical nursing adviser, Marotte oversees eight surgical units, an emergency room and an intensive care unit.
The concept of preventive medicine does not exist, and medical records are scare, Marotte said. There are no standards of nursing care, no policy and procedure manuals, and no patients bill of rights.
When she returned to home she took over as the division officer at Camp Pendleton's pediatric clinic, and is working on a masters degree.