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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

N404, serving our veterans, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center

College

Nursing

Abstract

Evaluation of how well the academic objectives of the proposal were met: The academic objectives of the MEG proposal were met and exceeded. Specifically, students were exposed to local and national venues in which Veterans and their history are prevalent. Examples of this include visits by the students and faculty to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Arlington National Cemetery, US Capitol, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Memorial, WW I Memorial, WW II Memorial, Korean War Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial, Museum of American History, etc. We also met with Senator Mike Lee from the State of Utah to discuss issues pertaining to our Veterans. Students were provided the opportunity to be mentored in this clinical experience by myself and Kent Blad, both Veterans of Operation Desert Storm and practicing nurses at the VA Medical Center in Salt Lake City. Students were exposed to the above sites in Washington DC, in addition to meeting with several panels of Veterans in rural Utah towns. Students completed assignments in assessing the Veteran population as a whole, a teaching activity, a reflective writing assignment on their experiences, a presentation on a Veteran of the student’s choice, a report on a Veteran monument/memorial, and the academic deliverables discussed below. Through these experiences, the importance of learning unique characteristics and principles in understanding the diversity of the Veteran population and caring for them was instilled in the students. The group took part in interviews, clinical experiences, historic Veteran site visits, and a service project involving the Veteran population. The culminating experience included being a guardian for a veteran on a Utah Honor Flight. This experienced allowed students to meet their veteran early in the semester and work with them on their application and medical form as well as learn about their experiences while serving in the United States military. The Honor Flight trip consisted of three days where the students were guardians (escorts) for their veterans as they experienced their memorials and other historic sites in the Washington D.C area.

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