Advancing Combat-Relevant Nursing Skills and Readiness Through Military-Civilian Partnerships

Within Military Treatment Facilities, military nurses face significant challenges in maintaining clinical readiness. These challenges are because of low patient volume, limited patient acuity, and a lack of training opportunities to reinforce knowledge and skills. As a result, nurses often fall between the skills they are required to have and those they have acquired-a sizeable gap with real-world implications. The purpose of this literature review is to examine the use of military-civilian partnerships as a viable means to sustain combat-relevant nursing skills and readiness.

The question developed to guide this literature review was: In military nursing, how does participation in a military-civilian partnership, compared to no participation, affect clinical readiness? With the support of a medical librarian, searches were conducted in PubMed and EBSCO databases. All retrieved articles underwent a 3-step review process (title, abstract, and full-text).

Out of 134 articles identified, 6 were included in the final synthesis of this review. Findings indicate that embedded and short, frequent rotational models provide greater combat-like clinical exposure compared to the military treatment facility. In addition, cross-unit rotations, the utilization of readiness-aligned skill trackers, and strong leadership engagement offer a robust experience.

A proactive approach to enhance nursing readiness is through the prioritization of quality clinical exposure in addition to an adequate quantity of experiences. This can be achieved through the use of military-civilian partnerships. By leveraging such relationships, the nursing force can remain trained and postured for effective care delivery in Large-Scale Combat Operations.