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Show Lt, Alder practicing medicine at sea Navy Lieutenant Daniel C. Alder of Bountiful has just spent his first year of practice as a doctor. doc-tor. Thousands of people depend on him. His patients come from all over the United States. The community he serves is the aircraft carrier USS Ranger, home for 5,000 sailors deployed to the Arabian Sea as part of a 7th Fleet battle group. Lt. Aider, son of Reuel and Lillian Lil-lian Alder of Bountiful, joined the Navy in 1982 because of the Navy's medical program. "The Navy is an exceptional place to get a medical education and train," the Brigham Young University graduate said. "I was able to go to George Washington University School of Medicine to get my M.D. something I would have never been able to afford to do otherwise." Becoming a doctor has been a goal of his for a long time. "I remember when I was in the seventh grade, wanting to be a doctor," doc-tor," the 32-year-old Alder said. "I made my plans then. I decided what I needed to do in order to get there." Growing up around the hospital where his mother worked and the impressions made by a local physician physi-cian inspired him. "Dr. (Lloyd) Hicken was my family doctor. He sparked my interest in-terest in medicine," Alder said. Following medical school at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., Alder went to QBalboa Naval Hospital in San 'Diego for his internship. "I worked very, very hard, probably 100-120 hours a week there, working in a lot of different areas," he said. "I was very impressed im-pressed with what I saw at Balboa. Of course, there was more to do than time to do it, but I learned well from the "hands-on" experience. Without any reservations, I can say that the best educators and clinicians cli-nicians I've ever worked with were at that hospital." According to Alder, the naval hospital has the number one urology urolo-gy program in the country and has the potential for being one of the top training centers in the U.S. Last year, over 300 civilian and military applicants vied for five internship in-ternship positions available there. Alder finished his internship in July 1986 and headed for sea duty. "Operational medicine out in the fleet is completely different in many ways from what you see in a hospital," the Viewmont High School graduate said. "Here, the emphasis is on the mission of the ship. We play a vital role in making sure the ship's personnel are able to complete their mission." "We serve as a floating hospital. We have the equivalent of a 56-bed community hospital here," he said. Aider and the rest of the Navy doctors and hospital corpsmen see 60-100 men during sick call each day. He compares shipboard life to that of an industrial environment, dealing with injuries and illnesses of a similar nature. One aspect that continually changes for the medical staff aboard Ranger is that this community com-munity of 5,000 all travel to different diffe-rent countries at the same time--and are exposed to local viruses and diseases common to the mostly tropical nations visited. "We do a lot of preventative medicine," Alder said, "dispensing "dispens-ing malaria pills, for example. But we have to be careful, someone might come back with a fever and it may be more than just a fever. It might be yellow fever or a number of things. We have to be able to identify whatever might come our way." On top of his clinical duties, Alder is responsible for the hospital hospit-al corpsmen training, sick call coordination and a smoking cessation cessa-tion program. He also assists with the ship's CPR certification and education course that is popular with crew members from all areas onboard the ship. "I've established what is probably prob-ably the only one of its kind-an education center that is for patients, pa-tients, corpsmen and doctors. That way, we (Navy doctors) can continue con-tinue our education and teach our corpsmen and patients also." I 4 t - ; I ! : f ' .:.,y ..4.. . Lieutenant Daniel C. Alder, son of Reuel and Lillian Alder, is Navy Medical Corps doctor aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ranger. The Viewmont High graduate also has degrees from BYU and George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Overall, Alder said he's fortunate fortun-ate to be a doctor, and especially a Navy doctor. "There's a responsibility given here that you don't get elsewhere," else-where," he said. "You're the final authority. You have to know, and if you don't know, you have to find out. Out in the middle of the Indian Ocean, you can't get on the phone and call someone for a consultation." consulta-tion." Since joining the Ranger crew, Alder has visited the Republic of Korea, Canada, Japan, Republic of the Philippines and Singapore. |