Service Transformed: Lessons from Centralized Care for U.S. Veterans

Improving veterans’ health care has become a national issue and is receiving increasing attention from the medical community. With the current increase in veterans reintegrating into civilian society, it is critical to improve the training of the next generation of health care professionals who will care for our veterans. It is widely recognized that veterans receive care from all aspects of the health care system, so providers in veteran-facing agencies, military health care providers, and civilian agencies must be aware of the unique needs of veterans. Perhaps even more important is educating civilian professionals who may not be familiar with the unique physical, mental, and emotional needs associated with military service. The audience for this course is all health care students, such as medical students, residents, dental students, nursing students, advanced practice nurses, social work and pharmacy students, and all health care professionals interested in serving veterans. What You Will Learn: This course will provide students with an opportunity to gain insight into the origins of academic medical centers and Veterans Administration affiliates, to recognize and manage the influence of bias, class, and power in the clinical encounter, and to independently examine their own biases that particularly impact American veterans. American Military Veterans. This course also includes several video clips from the acclaimed documentary Where Soldiers Come From, directed by Heather Courtney. The views expressed in this course are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of Veterans Affairs or the United States Government.