Assessment of Health in First-Increment Medical Personnel

According to Dr. Stephen F. Joseph, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, the primary responsibility of military medicine is medical readiness ("Special Reserve," 1995). The USAF must provide an active-duty medical force that is capable of immediate contingency response. Coronet Bandage, the initial component of the Air Transportable Hospital, is the key echelon of the United States Air Force's (USAFs) medical readiness and mission deployment capability. With downsizing, readiness reengineering, and redefining of the medical mission, the health or state of well-being of medical personnel is more important than ever before. The long-term objective of this pilot study is to assess health or state of well-being in mission-essential personnel assigned to mobility positions. Building upon the Quality of Life Study, the specific aims are (a) to investigate intrapersonal and interpersonal stressors that affect health of primary and alternate first-increment Coronet Bandage mobility personnel and (b) to assess health or state of well-being after overseas deployment.

Design: Using the Neuman Systems Model, this pilot study will use a comparative-descriptive design to assess health in primary and alternate mobility personnel who constitute the initial two increments that deploy with Coronet Bandage. Participants will be recruited from 12 Air Combat medical treatment facilities (MTFs). Both primary and alternate personnel will be administered a pre-test consisting of a Demographic Data Sheet and five nationally recognized research instruments. The treatment, overseas deployment, is at the discretion of the USAF. If the MTF does not deploy overseas, only a pre-test will be given. If the MTF does deploy overseas, a post-test will be given within 45 days of returning stateside. With a total sample size of 1,272 and an expected participation rate of 60%, 764 participants will allow an alpha of 0.05, a power of 0.80, and an effect size of 0.11 (Burns & Grove, 1993). The Chi-square, Mann-Whitney U-test, and t-test will be used to assess data and to measure statistically significant differences between scores of primary and alternate personnel.