Advancing Trauma Care in the Field

Randall Schaefer, DNP, RN, CEN 

Randall M. Schaefer, DNP, RN, ACNS-BC, CEN, served 20 years as an emergency and trauma nurse in the U.S. Army in operational units and fixed facilities, holding both clinical and staff officer roles. She deployed three times in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Inherent Resolve, where she established and implemented prehospital blood programs and Walking Blood Banks at both unit and strategic levels.

Following her retirement from active duty in 2017, Schaefer joined the Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council (STRAC), where she led development of the nation’s first multi-institutional, multidisciplinary regional whole blood program, serving 18 ground emergency medical service (EMS) agencies, 10 helicopter EMS bases and numerous hospitals across South Texas.

She has since assisted dozens of EMS agencies nationwide in establishing prehospital blood programs. Schaefer serves as a steering committee member for the Prehospital Blood Transfusion Initiative Coalition, a North Carolina EMS Regional Blood Coalition board member, and a member of AABB’s Out-of-Hospital and Prehospital Standards Committee.

AABB NEWS: Who or what influenced your career path in emergency and trauma care? 

Schaefer:I wish I had an inspiring story, but my military and medical career was born out of a need to pay for college. I received a four-year Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) scholarship to become an Army nurse. Between my junior and senior years of college, I attended a Cadet Nurse Summer Training program at Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in Aurora, Colo. I was selected to do my rotation in the emergency department. After a few shifts in the ED and ride-alongs with EMS, I was hooked. I knew this was where I belonged.