May 3rd marked the start of Nurses week for SPHN. Sierra Medical Center kicked off the festivities by hosting one of their AUSA community partner Soldiers, CPT Antonio Ortiz, from the 1/77th  AD. CPT Ortiz was deemed "Nurse for a Day" and is the Physician's Assistant for the 1/77th Steel Tigers Battalion. CPT Ortiz had just returned two day prior from a year long deployment in Iraq. He was treated to breakfast with the nurses at Sierra Medical Center and given a tour of several of the units to include the Gamma Knife housed at the Neurological Institute at Sierra. CPT Ortiz who began his career in the medical field as an LVN stated that "nurses are the backbone of the healthcare system." CPT Ortiz gave the nurses at Sierra a glimpse into Military Medicine and the nurses at Sierra gave CPT Ortiz a glimpse into life in Civilian medicine. Both groups came away with a friendship based on the common bonds in all of medicine which are caring, compassion and healing.