Today the White House unveiled a plan to help Iraq and Afghanistan veterans translate the health care and medical first responder skills and experiences gained during their enlistment into nursing jobs when they return home.
Most of these veterans have found that their medical and health care training doesn’t meet the standards of academic training for nursing programs making it difficult for them to earn academic credit for their enlisted training and experiences.
According to the White House, the administration plans to take several steps to help rectify the problem.
The first step will be a partnership between Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi College of Nursing and Health Sciences and the Medical Education and Training Command in San Antonio, Texas to find ways to align enlisted health care training and nursing academic credit.
The partnership project will focus on opportunities to bridge the gap between enlisted training and academic coursework, improve documentation of health care training, and work with other key training stakeholders such as state licensure boards.
The second step will be to give funding priority to nursing schools that offer pro-veteran learning environments, recruit and support veterans interested in pursuing nursing careers, and offer academic credit for enlisted health care training and experience.
Hopefully these steps will help create health care career opportunities for veterans while meeting the health care workforce needs of our aging population.
Read the full White House post, Helping Veterans Transition to Careers in Nursing on the Jobs for Vets blog.
Clich here to read the President's latest remarks on this issue.
