One of the challenges of diagnosing and treating complex injuries like post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury is the sheer amount of qualified medical personnel who can recognize the often subtle signs of trauma. Joining Forces (which celebrated its one year anniversary today) is looking to solve part of that issue by training a corps of nurses in the coming years.
Over three million nurses will be trained on how to recognize and respond to PTSD and TBI, which will immediately impact the care of Veterans.
From Stars & Stripes:
Amy Garcia, chief nursing officer of the American Nurses Association, said the new initiative should have a more immediate impact on veterans care, because officials can introduce the lessons into professional development courses, medical journals and other nursing resources in a matter of weeks, not years.
…
“Our goal is to raise awareness of these issues, teach nurses to recognize the signs and symptoms, and help reduce the stigma of seeking care,” she said.
VA nurses are well trained in identifying PTSD and TBI, so this will mostly impact private care facilities that haven’t trained in these areas. But if a nurse at a private hospital comes to work at VA, it’ll be a big boost to have prior knowledge of two of the most pressing medical issues we work to address.
Topics in this story
More Stories
VA remains open for business and is closely monitoring the Change Healthcare (CHC) cybersecurity incident.
Carry The Load, an organization dedicated to remembering the fallen, will visit 34 VA National Cemeteries traveling 20,000 miles along five separate routes covering all continental 48 states known as the National Relay for Memorial May 2024.
Over the five-year program, more than 14,000 VET TEC beneficiaries completed their program and nearly half have reported finding meaningful employment with an average starting annual salary of $65,000.
It’s about time the V.A. started doing something positive on PTSD. I was diagnosed eight months ago and have been living in the domicilary at the V.A. Hospital in Lyons, N.J. that whole time without any thing done. I know theres more veterans with PTSD coming back from Iraq and Afganistan now and that I’ve been out of the military a long time but I shouldn’nt be thrown away because of that or the legal problems I’ve had due to what the military did to me.