Implementation of Deployment Readiness Training for Gynecologic Care.

Area of Science:

• Military Medicine
• Women's Health
• Medical Education

Background:

• Gynecologic care is crucial for deployed service members but inadequately addressed in training.
• Hospital corpsmen lack formal education in women's health, despite prevalence of related issues in theater.
• Growing number of female service members necessitates improved readiness and healthcare support.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and implement a brief, reproducible training intervention.
• To improve hospital corpsmen knowledge of common gynecologic concerns during deployment.
• To enhance preparedness for women's health issues in deployed settings.

Main Methods:

• Developed a 30-minute educational presentation and 15-question assessment.
• Training content covered contraception, STIs, menstrual suppression, and gynecologic triage.
• Utilized a Plan-Do-Study-Act framework with pre- and post-training assessments over 5 sessions.

Main Results:

• 33 Active-Duty Corpsmen participated, showing a significant increase in average scores from 60% to 87%.
• Knowledge gains were most notable in emergency contraception, STI management, and menstrual suppression.
• Subject-matter experts validated the training's relevance and appropriateness for military personnel.

Conclusions:

• A brief, targeted training effectively improved corpsmen's knowledge of essential women's health topics.
• This intervention addresses a gap in pre-deployment preparation, supporting female service member readiness and health.
• The program is low-resource, scalable, and suitable for integration into existing military medical education.