Ashley Forsberg, RN, a medical/surgical nurse from Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, Michigan is brimming with emotion from her relief work in Haiti on the Navy ship USNS Comfort. She tells of bonds made with patients and new teammates. “And it truly was a team,” she says. “One thing you learn on the ship is that everything you do makes a difference to your teammates. How much water you use during your shower. How much water you drink. How noisy you are in your quarters when people working other shifts are trying to sleep.”
 
For Forsberg, who spent a week and a half aboard the Comfort as a volunteer with National Nurses United’s Registered Nurse Response Network, shipboard life was full of amazing experiences. “We had drills to go through – fire drills, abandon-ship drills and then falling out for muster to make sure everyone was on the ship. Every morning reveille would sound at 6:00 am whether you worked the night shift or not! There was always sound – machinery humming, water running, PA announcements.”