Strengthening the Military Family Readiness System for a Changing American Society

Strengthening the Military Family Readiness System for a Changing American Society
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2019-10-25
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0309489539

The U.S. military has been continuously engaged in foreign conflicts for over two decades. The strains that these deployments, the associated increases in operational tempo, and the general challenges of military life affect not only service members but also the people who depend on them and who support them as they support the nation â€" their families. Family members provide support to service members while they serve or when they have difficulties; family problems can interfere with the ability of service members to deploy or remain in theater; and family members are central influences on whether members continue to serve. In addition, rising family diversity and complexity will likely increase the difficulty of creating military policies, programs and practices that adequately support families in the performance of military duties. Strengthening the Military Family Readiness System for a Changing American Society examines the challenges and opportunities facing military families and what is known about effective strategies for supporting and protecting military children and families, as well as lessons to be learned from these experiences. This report offers recommendations regarding what is needed to strengthen the support system for military families.

Substance Use Disorders in the U.S. Armed Forces

Substance Use Disorders in the U.S. Armed Forces
Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2013-03-21
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309260558

Problems stemming from the misuse and abuse of alcohol and other drugs are by no means a new phenomenon, although the face of the issues has changed in recent years. National trends indicate substantial increases in the abuse of prescription medications. These increases are particularly prominent within the military, a population that also continues to experience long-standing issues with alcohol abuse. The problem of substance abuse within the military has come under new scrutiny in the context of the two concurrent wars in which the United States has been engaged during the past decade-in Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom) and Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn). Increasing rates of alcohol and other drug misuse adversely affect military readiness, family readiness, and safety, thereby posing a significant public health problem for the Department of Defense (DoD). To better understand this problem, DoD requested that the Institute of Medicine (IOM) assess the adequacy of current protocols in place across DoD and the different branches of the military pertaining to the prevention, screening, diagnosis, and treatment of substance use disorders (SUDs). Substance Use Disorders in the U.S. Armed Forces reviews the IOM's task of assessing access to SUD care for service members, members of the National Guard and Reserves, and military dependents, as well as the education and credentialing of SUD care providers, and offers specific recommendations to DoD on where and how improvements in these areas could be made.

A Contemporary History of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps

A Contemporary History of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps
Author: Mary T. Sarnecky
Publisher: Department of the Army
Total Pages: 618
Release: 2010-04-27
Genre: History
ISBN:

This book focuses on an organization, the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, which the author has been privileged to be affiliated with – in one way or another – for the greatest part of her adult life. As an active duty officer, the author had first-hand knowledge about the Army Nurse Corps inner workings and spent the last years of her Army career (from 1992) researching and writing the Corps history. One of her goals in researching and writing this history was to intrigue and provide a sense of gratification for the reader. After the conclusion of the Vietnam War, several wide-ranging and significant changes exerted myriad effects on the Army Nurse Corps. The most influential of these phenomena included the dismantling of the Selective Service System, the reorganization of the Army, the launch of the Health Services Command (HSC), the opening of the Academy of Health Sciences, the transformation of the Office of the Army Surgeon General, the inauguration of improvements in the Army Reserve and National Guard, and the evolution in the roles and status of women.

Clinical Education for the Health Professions

Clinical Education for the Health Professions
Author: Debra Nestel
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 1757
Release: 2023-07-19
Genre: Education
ISBN: 981153344X

This book compiles state-of-the art and science of health professions education into an international resource showcasing expertise in many and varied topics. It aligns profession-specific contributions with inter-professional offerings, and prompts readers to think deeply about their educational practices. The book explores the contemporary context of health professions education, its philosophical and theoretical underpinnings, whole of curriculum considerations, and its support of learning in clinical settings. In specific topics, it offers approaches to assessment, evidence-based educational methods, governance, quality improvement, scholarship and leadership in health professions education, and some forecasting of trends and practices. This book is an invaluable resource for students, educators, academics and anyone interested in health professions education.

War Surgery in Afghanistan and Iraq

War Surgery in Afghanistan and Iraq
Author: Shawn Christian Nessen
Publisher: U.S. Government Printing Office
Total Pages: 468
Release: 2008
Genre: History
ISBN:

Specialty Volume of Textbooks of Military Medicine. TMM. Edited by Shawn Christian Nessen, Dave Edmond Lounsbury, and Stephen P. Hetz. Foreword by Bob Woodruff. Prepared especially for medical personnel. Provides the fundamental principles and priorities critical in managing the trauma of modern warfare. Contains concise supplemental material for military surgeons deploying or preparing to deploy to a combat theater.

Assessing Fitness for Military Enlistment

Assessing Fitness for Military Enlistment
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2006-02-27
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309164877

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) faces short-term and long-term challenges in selecting and recruiting an enlisted force to meet personnel requirements associated with diverse and changing missions. The DoD has established standards for aptitudes/abilities, medical conditions, and physical fitness to be used in selecting recruits who are most likely to succeed in their jobs and complete the first term of service (generally 36 months). In 1999, the Committee on the Youth Population and Military Recruitment was established by the National Research Council (NRC) in response to a request from the DoD. One focus of the committee's work was to examine trends in the youth population relative to the needs of the military and the standards used to screen applicants to meet these needs. When the committee began its work in 1999, the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force had recently experienced recruiting shortfalls. By the early 2000s, all the Services were meeting their goals; however, in the first half of calendar year 2005, both the Army and the Marine Corps experienced recruiting difficulties and, in some months, shortfalls. When recruiting goals are not being met, scientific guidance is needed to inform policy decisions regarding the advisability of lowering standards and the impact of any change on training time and cost, job performance, attrition, and the health of the force. Assessing Fitness for Military Enlistment examines the current physical, medical, and mental health standards for military enlistment in light of (1) trends in the physical condition of the youth population; (2) medical advances for treating certain conditions, as well as knowledge of the typical course of chronic conditions as young people reach adulthood; (3) the role of basic training in physical conditioning; (4) the physical demands and working conditions of various jobs in today's military services; and (5) the measures that are used by the Services to characterize an individual's physical condition. The focus is on the enlistment of 18- to 24-year-olds and their first term of service.

Military Readiness

Military Readiness
Author: Richard K. Betts
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Total Pages: 335
Release: 2012-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0815717075

Throughout most of American history, U.S. military forces proved unready for the wars that were thrust upon them and suffered costly reverses in early battles. During the Cold War, for the first time, U.S. defense policy tried to maintain high readiness in peacetime. But now, with the Cold War over and defense budgets falling, what will happen to U.S. military forces? Will they revert to a state of unpreparedness or find a new balance? Politicians and military planners alike have found this crucial issue especially difficult to deal with because they have often misunderstood what readiness really means. In this book, security expert Richard Betts surveys problems in developing and measuring combat readiness before, during, and after the Cold War. He analyzes why attempts to maximize it often have counterproductive effects, and how confusions in technical concepts cause political controversy. The book explores conflicts between two objectives that are both vital but work against each other because they compete for resources: operational readiness to fight immediately, and structural readiness—the number of organized units that increase military power, but require time during a crisis to gear up for combat. Betts also discusses the problem brought on by the Cold War and plunging defense budgets: mobilization readiness—the plans and arrangements needed to shorten the time for recreating a large military if it once again becomes necessary. Betts offers new ideas for understanding the dilemmas and tradeoffs that underlie debates on how readiness should be maintained in peacetime, and he explores the strategic consequences of different choices.

A National Trauma Care System

A National Trauma Care System
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 531
Release: 2016-10-12
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309442850

Advances in trauma care have accelerated over the past decade, spurred by the significant burden of injury from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Between 2005 and 2013, the case fatality rate for United States service members injured in Afghanistan decreased by nearly 50 percent, despite an increase in the severity of injury among U.S. troops during the same period of time. But as the war in Afghanistan ends, knowledge and advances in trauma care developed by the Department of Defense (DoD) over the past decade from experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq may be lost. This would have implications for the quality of trauma care both within the DoD and in the civilian setting, where adoption of military advances in trauma care has become increasingly common and necessary to improve the response to multiple civilian casualty events. Intentional steps to codify and harvest the lessons learned within the military's trauma system are needed to ensure a ready military medical force for future combat and to prevent death from survivable injuries in both military and civilian systems. This will require partnership across military and civilian sectors and a sustained commitment from trauma system leaders at all levels to assure that the necessary knowledge and tools are not lost. A National Trauma Care System defines the components of a learning health system necessary to enable continued improvement in trauma care in both the civilian and the military sectors. This report provides recommendations to ensure that lessons learned over the past decade from the military's experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq are sustained and built upon for future combat operations and translated into the U.S. civilian system.