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AACN RELEASES JOINING FORCES FACULTY TOOL KIT
Stuart Co-Chairs Tool Kit Task Force
In summer 2012, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) joined with the Department of Veteran Affairs (DVA) in an effort to enhance the resources of nurses working with veterans as part of the Joining Forces initiative, with a particular focus on nursing education. Dean Gail Stuart, PhD, RN, FAAN, co-chaired the Task Force that developed the Enhancing Veterans’ Care (EVC) Tool Kit. The task force included a wide range of representatives from the Veterans Administration, the U.S. Military, and professional nursing education. The Tool Kit describes resources and exemplars that can assist faculty with the implementation of curriculum elements that will appropriately address the unique needs of the veterans and their families. TAKING ACTION TO SERVE A M E R I C A’ S M I L I TA R Y F A M I L I E S The goals of this Enhancing Veterans’ Care Tool Kit are to: • Provide key educational resources that will assist schools as they engage in curricular development to incorporate quality care of veterans and their families. • Suggest focused, innovative learning strategies for teaching students how to care for veterans and their families. • Detail a repository of resources that are relevant to all nurses who care for veterans and their families. This EVC Tool Kit will be updated on a regular basis to keep it current. For more information, visit www.aacn.nche.edu.
STATS There are an estimated 22.2 million Veterans in the U.S. – 8 percent are women. • More than 2 million U.S. troops have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan since September 11, 2001. • About one in three U.S. service members returning from Iraq or Afghanistan experience signs of combat stress, depression, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or symptoms of a traumatic brain injury (TBI). •
Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom Veterans who used VA care, 48 percent were diagnosed with a mental health problem.
• Of those who had PTSD or depression and sought treatment only slightly over half received adequate treatment. •
Only 53 percent of returning troops who screened positive for PTSD or major depression sought help from a provider for these conditions in the preceding year.
• Only 57 percent of those with a probable TBI had been evaluated by a physician for a brain injury in the preceding year. • From 2005 to 2010, on average, one service member has committed suicide every 36 hours. • 349 – Number of U.S. military suicides in 2012, more than the 295 troops killed in combat in Afghanistan during the year. • Mental and substance use disorders caused more hospitalizations among U.S. troops in 2009 than any other cause.
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Lifelines
Spring | Summer 2013
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Children of deployed military personnel have more school, family, and peer-related emotional difficulties, compared with national samples.
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Although 53 percent of recent Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans receive their health care through the VA, many Veterans and their families will seek care in community settings from primary care and community mental health clinicians.