MCAS Cherry Point  –   Nurses and corpsmen serving aboard Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command Cherry Point spent an August morning refreshing their proficiencies and learning about updates to their career fields.

The NMRTC Cherry Point Nurses Skills Fair held Thursday, August 20, 2026, in the facility gave staff members an opportunity to pause from patient care and focus on emerging aspects of patient care both in practice and in policy.

“The skills fair is important for the readiness of our nursing staff and corpsmen since it offers dedicated time to assess our clinical skills and review policies and practice,” said Navy Cmdr. Christina Tellez, the NMRTC Chief Nursing Officer.  “This year we focused on the operational skills shared across all nursing specialties that may be harder to obtain in our [Military Treatment Facility]”

The staff members participated in numerous stations in a round-robin-style setup which included administering an IV to a training model and fellow corpsman, treating burns, and opening a patient’s blocked airway.

Skills and proficiencies practiced during the training are essential components of Cherry Point’s corpsmen and nurses’ mission to ensure the medical and operational readiness of units assigned to Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point

Navy Capt. Heather Kirk, NMRTC Cherry Point’s Director of Medical Services, and Tellez moved among the participants to coach, correct and encourage them as they trained.

The skills fair, according to Tellez, was designed to train and evaluate the knowledge, skills and abilities of the assembled nurses and corpsmen in tasks that will be expected of them in an operational environment. 

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