U.S. Army Professional Filler System Nursing Personnel: Do They Possess Competency Needed for Deployment?

Military Medicine, Feb 2006 by Rivers, Felecia M, Wertenberger, Dana H, Lindgren, Katherine

Personal/Physical/Psychosocial Readiness

The research study results indicated that PROFIS personnel were moderately to mostly ready in all categories. Very few personnel were noted to have physical restrictions that limited them during deployments, and all personnel had moderate scores on their physical training tests. All had met their dental examination requirements. The research participants had high scores in rating any pending legal matters, having a care plan if applicable, and family support during deployment. All participants indicated low to moderate scores relating to stress at home or work. This study indicated low levels of readiness relating to death, carnage, one's own death, battle fatigue, and weather extremes, compared with previous studies.6 The research participants did indicate a moderately high level of readiness for long work hours.

Leadership and Administrative Support

PROFIS personnel indicated a low level of competency regarding perceived leader concerns. Also, they indicated a low level of competency in the ability of their first-line deployment supervisors to keep them informed. The perceived feeling of the inability of leaders to keep troops informed was noted in previous research.6

Group Integration and Identification

Self-reported ratings for readiness to adjust to crowded/ mixed gender sleeping quarters were moderately high. This study indicated moderate readiness levels in familiarity with the deployment unit's mission, vision, and values. The number of days trained with the deployment unit was rated at a low level of readiness. The number of days spent in the field with their units in the past year varied from 1 day (12.9%) to 5 days (33.5%). Previous research reflected high levels of readiness in the ability to adjust to crowed/mixed gender sleeping arrangements. Some of the research participants (57.1%) also reported a greater number of days (7 days) spent training with their deploying unit.6

The second research question that was asked was as follows: are there differences in perceived competency levels among PROFIS personnel assigned to various fixed facilities? Two different types of MTFs were chosen to test this research question. One facility is considered a community hospital, whereas the other facility is classified as a medical center. An Army community hospital offers "complex, resource-intensive secondary care (e.g., inpatient care, surgery under general anesthesia) at a major post, usually 50 to 150 beds."9 An Army medical center offers "tertiary care (sophisticated diagnosis/treatment of any ailment) as well as primary and secondary care. Medical centers have more sophisticated equipment and more specialized staff and offer wider arrays of specialty care."9

The means and SDs were calculated from responses on a 5-point rating scale to answer the research question. The numbers of items varied by topic and section. One-way ANOVA was used to test for statistical significance. The data were statistically analyzed at a confidence interval of 95%.