Verification of the need for Hospital Corpsman follow-on/refresher training

Abstract

The Navy's Medical Department, in fulfilling its mission, requires an enormous amount of skilled manpower. Hospital Corpsmen account for a significant percentage of this population. Due to the variety of the needs of the Navy, Hospital Corpsmen are frequently assigned to jobs outside their respective skill areas, i.e., Security, Maintenance, and Administration. The resulting periods of nonutilization of corpsmen skills may lead to various levels of skill degradation. Upon reassignment to another operational unit or Medical Treatment Facility, retraining basic core competencies is necessary to reestablish and ensure a high degree of operational readiness. This study suggests the need to improve Hospital Corpsmen competency-based, follow-on training because of the perceptions of both corpsmen and supervisors that skill degradation does exist. Based on this analysis, this thesis concludes that command competency-based training, as practiced, does not work. Recommendations are submitted for improvement in areas of training, professional development, mentoring programs, and instructional technologies.