Military medicine
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With a deficit of effective military residency mentorships, a paucity of research on successful mentorship programs, and growing reports on innovative mentoring programs, we developed a "Speed Mentoring" event for the National Capital Consortium OBGYN Residency. ⋯ After demonstrating a need for improved mentorship opportunities, we implemented an efficient way to foster mentorship while expanding resident involvement in research, QI projects, and fellowship applications. This "Speed Mentorship" program can be easily adapted to all residency programs.
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Service members (SMs) who are injured on deployment are at risk for myriad long-term health problems that may be ancillary to their physical injury, including high rates of depression and posttraumatic stress disorder, and poor health behaviors (e.g., problem drinking, cigarette and tobacco use, poor sleep quality, and sedentary lifestyle). As the specific health behaviors injured SMs engage in have been largely ignored, the primary aim of this study was to compare health behavior patterns among those with and without mental health problems in a large, representative sample of SMs injured on combat deployment. ⋯ The results provide a preliminary glance into the mental health and health behaviors of SMs roughly a decade after injury, and underscore the importance of examining the interplay between mental, physical, and behavioral health outcomes among wounded warriors to promote health and wellness.
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Suicide rates among military personnel have risen in part due to war zone deployments. Yet, the degree to which deployment-related stressors, in combination with preexisting and co-occurring psychiatric symptoms and individual resilience factors, contribute to suicide ideation (SI) remains unclear. The current study leverages prospective, longitudinal data to examine both risk and protective factors associated with SI in deployed service members. ⋯ Results indicate that even mild symptoms of depression and PTSD may increase the risk of SI. Screening for subthreshold clinical symptoms and TBI while incorporating psychological resilience training would allow for a more multidimensional approach to suicide risk assessment.
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This study explores perceived stress and experience with bruxism among veterans with Gulf War Illness (GWI). Stress may manifest physically as bruxism, a parafunctional oral activity that consists of teeth grinding and/or clenching. ⋯ GWI veterans reported higher levels of perceived stress in comparison with that of general population males. Both the high frequency of teeth grinding and clenching in these patients is a potential physical manifestation of the high perceived stress levels reported. It is imperative that both military and civilian dentists and physicians are aware of the potential for increased stress and consequently bruxism in this patient population as it can have negative impacts on oral and mental health. Treatment of these patients can include but is not limited to behavior modification, stress reduction training, and the fabrication of mouth guards. The dental and medical implications of bruxism and stress in veterans with GWI should be further investigated.
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Although military nurses and medics have important roles in caring for combat casualties, no standardized pre-deployment training curriculum exists for those in the Army. A large-scale, survey-based evaluation of pre-deployment training would help to understand its current state and identify areas for improvement. The purpose of this study was to survey Army nurses and medics to describe their pre-deployment training. ⋯ Most nurse and medic respondents were evaluated for clinical competency before deployment, and they attended a variety of courses that covered many topics. Importantly, most nurses and medics were satisfied with the quality of their training, and they felt confident and prepared to provide care. Although these are encouraging findings, they must be interpreted within the context of self-report, survey-based assessments, and the low response rate. Although these limitations and weaknesses of our study limit the generalizability of our results, this study attempts to address a critical knowledge gap regarding pre-deployment training of military nurses and medics. Our results may be used as a basis for conducting additional studies to gather more information on the state of pre-deployment training for nurses and medics. These studies will hopefully have a higher response rate and better quantify how many individuals received any form of pre-deployment training. Additionally, our recommendations regarding pre-deployment training that we derived from the study results may be helpful to military leadership.