Enhancing Interoperability Among Enlisted Medical Personnel. A Case Study of Military Surgical Technologists

摘要

Following the recommendations of the 2005 BRAC Commission, a joint medical education and training campus (METC) is being established at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, to provide training for enlisted medical specialties in the Air Force, Army, and Navy. Currently, the idea is to collocate the three service schools and to consolidate medical training for all services to the extent feasible. The shorter-term objective is efficiency to reduce the overall costs of training; the longer-term objective is to increase the interoperability of the services by training service specialists to a common standard. RAND is providing technical assistance to the Executive Integrated Process Team (EIPT) that is overseeing the implementation of the METC in a number of areas, including determining joint rather than service-specific standards of practice (SOPs) for medical specialties. An SOP encompasses a set of standardized tasks that individuals who are proficient at a given level must be able to perform. In addition, the SOP often delineates the knowledge, skills, and abilities such individuals need to be competent in the job.