Military Culture: Core Competencies for Health Care Professionals
Format: Online
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Increasing numbers of health care professionals with no prior military service history or experience working with military Service Members, Veterans, or their families are being called upon to deliver patient care to these rapidly growing populations. For current and former military Servicemembers, the explicit organizational structures and implicit ideals and values comprising military culture play a significant and lifelong role in injury, illness, and recovery. In all fields of health care, but most especially in mental health evaluation and treatment, empathic therapeutic alliances and effective treatment plans require health care professionals to possess and utilize detailed knowledge, skills, and attitudes regarding military and Veteran cultures and subcultures. To meet this training need, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DoD) have jointly sponsored a plan to develop and implement an online Military Culture Training Curriculum for health care professionals. The curriculum for this training will encourage military cultural competency in health care professionals through the provision of interactive online training in the requisite knowledge, skills, and attitudes.
In this first module, you will be given the opportunity to reflect on your own beliefs and potential biases that might impact your work with Servicemembers, Veterans, and family members. A Conceptual framework for military culture will be introduced as the first step in increasing your knowledge about military ethos and its impact on psychological health and treatment.
The full course, Military Culture: Core Competencies for Healthcare Professionals is comprised of four modules. The planning committee recommends you take all four modules to gain the most overall insight into Military Culture. Modules 2 through 4 are as follows:
- Mod 2 - Military Organization and Roles
- Mod 3 - Stressors and Their Impact
- Mod 4 - Treatment Resources and Tools
CONTINUING EDUCATION:
Continuing education (CE/CME) credits can be earned for completing the Military Culture Core Competencies for Healthcare Professionals Self-Assessment and Introduction to Military Ethos course. This course qualifies for 2.0 credit hours.
To obtain continuing education credit(s), we recommend that you: 1) print and review the brochure for this course; 2) complete the web-based training course; and 3) complete the attached .pdf evaluation and submit as instructed on the form.