Many Iraq and Afghanistan veterans received training as health care providers while they served in their deployments. The Obama Administration is committed to helping these veterans translate the health care skills gained during their enlistment into nursing jobs when they return home.
However, veterans have found that their training in medic and certain other health care roles do not fully meet the standards of academic training for nursing programs. As a result, veterans have encountered difficulty gaining academic credit for their health care training while enlisted.
To bridge this gap, the Obama Administration plans to take several steps. An award will be made to the Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMUCC) College of Nursing and Health Sciences (CONHS), which will allow the nursing school to work with key military leadership and training staff at the Medical Education and Training Command in San Antonio, Texas to identify strategies to align enlisted health care training and nursing academic credit.
The TAMUCC-COHNS has an existing federal grant to help residents of Texas who are members of the military – and veterans with previous medical experience – become registered nurses through distance learning technologies. In implementing this program, TAMUCC-COHNS has seen firsthand the obstacles that arise from the gap between enlisted health care training and academic training requirements.
Fonte: White House