Position and Action Plan

Position:
As students enrolled in a baccalaureate nursing program, we do not support Virginia House Bill 253. We believe that nursing requires a certain level of education, which medical corpsmen do not receive as part of their training. According to corpsmen.com, medical corpsmen receive training equivalent to the civilian level of an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). The skill base of an EMT consists of things like performing Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), responding to acute medical emergencies, transportation to an acute facility, and other basic life supporting techniques. These skills are not equivalent to those of a registered nurse (RN). RN’s are focused on providing holistic care while corpsmen’s education remains skill-based.

Evidenced based research submitted to Texas A&M University by Antiona Scialdo reveals, “higher pass rates for a private first class and specialist, as compared to lower pass rates of corporals and sergeants. Additionally, soldier students in the study who had completed at least one college unit (had attended college), had a 92% pass rate as compared to those who had not completed any additional education or college after high school (75.0%).” This suggests that having a college education is imperative to successfully completing the NCLEX on the first attempt.

We believe medical corpsmen lack education in understanding the nursing process, which is vital to the everyday practice of an RN. Limited knowledge of pharmacology and pathophysiology of acute and chronic diseases may also be a concern. The ability to evaluate evidence based practice and research may enhance the RNs ability to implement best-practice based on most recent literature and the highest standards of care. Medical corpsmen may also lack experience in teaching primary prevention techniques vital to a healthy community.

According to Halloran, “Florence Nightingale described military men as the worst nurses in 1863.” Today, we recognize many positive qualities which corpsmen can bring to a hospital setting; however, having a formal nursing education would greatly add to their expertise and would be imperative to their nursing practice. After serving, corpsmen would be eligible to enroll into an accredited nursing program with guaranteed acceptance into pre-determined schools. As an incentive for programs to accept corpsmen, schools could receive government tax breaks for reserving a specific amount of seats for them.

Action Plan:
-We will contact key stakeholders and legislators in order to inform them of the potential consequences of passing VA HB 253.
-Once we have gotten in touch with key stakeholders and legislators, we will suggest amending this bill to include guaranteed acceptance of corpsman into a nursing program.
-We will contact additional nursing organizations such as American Nurses Association with the goal of inviting additional lobbyist groups to support our position.

Stakeholders:
As mentioned in a previous post, there are several groups that will be impacted by this bill.
They include:
-Current and future nurses
-Military corpsmen
-Hospitals
-Community/Patients
-Accredited nursing programs
-Health care professionals
-Future military recruits
-National board of nursing
-Legislators (pictures and names posted)

As an exaggerated example of our position, we have provided a Grey's Anatomy video clip demonstrating the impulsive characteristics that a military trained health care professional can have.

For those who are unfamiliar with the curriculum of an Associate or Baccalaureate program, we have provided information in the post below.