 Care of veterans in a non‐veteran health administration hospital: What is the status of nursing practice after continuing education?Gina Maiocco, Lya M. Stroupe, Anthea Rhoades and Billie Vance Journal of Clinical Nursing, 2019, vol. 28, issue 3-4, 520-527 Abstract: Aims and objectives To identify how civilian nurses are caring for military veterans following mandatory continuing education on veterans’ mental health needs and to describe challenges nurses are facing in provision of that care. Background Veterans and military personnel experience mental health conditions at a high rate and are increasingly receiving care in civilian healthcare facilities. Nonmilitary providers may not be prepared to address this population's challenging needs. Military culture may influence the presentation of mental health conditions; thus, critical assessment points by nonmilitary medical personnel may be missed. Education is touted internationally as a means to address deficits, but research is lacking to support that statement. Methods Adhering to research reporting guidelines, 115 of a proposed 322 civilian nurses in a tertiary hospital volunteered to complete a one‐time online survey that contained quantitative and demographic questions. Forty of 115 nurses went on to complete the qualitative query. Descriptive statistics summarised quantitative results, and constant comparative analysis was applied to qualitative responses for theme identification. Results The study was stopped early due to reports of violence from veterans upon nurses. Results showed continuing education did not change documentation of military status. Following mandatory continuing education, civilian nurses continued to describe uncertainty in how to adapt care, on how to interact with veterans and in how to deal with violence. Conclusion The status of care to veterans remains insufficient, but nurses are asking critical questions on how to update practice. Additional support and research in the clinical setting is needed to promote a safe caring environment. Relevance to clinical practice Continuing education alone may not advance care of the veteran. A multipronged approach to include mandatory documentation of military status and coaching of providers by those experienced with the military way of life may be used to augment staff preparedness. Date: 2019 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:jocnur:v:28:y:2019:i:3-4:p:520-527 Access Statistics for this article More articles in Journal of Clinical Nursing from John Wiley & Sons |
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