Using After-Action Reports for Readiness Competency Training

After-action reports are routinely written and submitted through command channels to provide information on military exercises, deployments, and humanitarian actions. These reports typically summarize lessons learned or recommendations. However, the utility of information and the mechanism for feedback of these lessons to improve training in military nursing is not known.

The long-term goal of this research is to integrate the vast insights gained from after-action reports into a scientific base for understanding key factors that influence the quality and stability of the military nursing corps and for improving the quality of training. Continuous quality improvement in all aspects of military training is critical to our nations' defense. This project is designed to explore the nature of the information in after-action reports in terms of nursing practice and the utility of using after-action reports in a feedback loop to improve nursing training.

The specific aims of this study are to use the Plan-Do-Check-Act model to explore literature, focus groups, and a modified Delphi process to refine a methodology for effectively examining the nature of the process through which the implications of evaluations of performance found in after-action reports are used to make changes in nurse corps training and content; collect data on the nature of the process used to make changes in training and content; to explore methods to establish a quality improvement feedback loop for military nurse training based on information from after-action reports; and to identify facilitating and limiting factors in the use of after-action reports.

On the basis of the findings, a proposed action plan and recommendations will be designed to use after-action report data as a specific feedback source for improving nursing competency training.

Final report is available on NTRL: https://ntrl.ntis.gov/NTRL/dashboard/searchResults/titleDetail/PB2013104...