Veterans' health care considerations for today's nursing curricula

Although there have been several wars and conflicts since World War I, the escalating numbers of veterans since that time is now evident. Extraordinary survival results have evolved from effective triage, trauma treatment, and recovery maneuvers during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn (OIF) in Iraq and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) in Afghanistan. Yet even with those results, the number of physical and mentally wounded individuals exceeded 32,000 from OIF and 16,000 from OEF. How will we help these service men and women meet the special challenges they may face after discharge from the military? This article presents a rationale for content integration, health concerns, and realistic educational suggestions for faculty as they prepare professional nurses to care for these veterans and their families. Future nurses need to be prepared to care for this patient population in community health care systems.