Ernest Hemingway spoke of the importance of listening, saying that he learned a great deal by listening carefully to what others had to say. It's an important precept in all walks of life, perhaps nowhere more than in medicine and healing.
Within the U.S. Army Medical Command, Deputy Chief of Staff, Warrior Care and Transition the act of listening means taking note of what those tasked with the day to day administering of warrior care have to say. The enduring mission of the WCT is to provide a dedicated time, place and process for wounded, ill and injured Soldiers and their families to complete a comprehensive transition plan so as to successfully return to duty or transition to civilian life.
Among the many tools that are used in the delivery of warrior care is the Army Warrior Care and Transition System that records assessments and mitigating actions regarding wounded, ill and injured Soldiers who may be confronting, in addition to their injuries, events such as broken relationships, alcohol and drug abuse, social isolation, to suicidal thoughts.
Warrior Care and Transition is listening to its user community to better align with the WCT mission, continually striving to improve the system and create a user-driven design.
Accordingly, AWCTS has undergone a recent redesign. When visiting the 14 Warrior Transition Units, WCT tries to identify issues with the self-assessment validation functionality, and makes needed changes to the system's user interface, improving accuracy and ease of use.
"The AWCTS Support Team has been listening to field users, Subject Matter Experts, and the leaders at WCT," said Michael H. Mobley, Chief Information Officer, Infrastructure and Support Division, Warrior Care and Transition. "From their feedback and input, we made changes that we hope will improve data accuracy while at the same time making it easier to comply with policy and allowing users to focus on providing care to our wounded, ill, and injured service members."
Soldiers regularly assess themselves across the six domains (career, physical, emotional, social, Family and spiritual), then squad leaders and nurse case managers review that information and conduct a validation. After validating what a Soldier provides, Warrior Transition Unit staff are required to create an action plan if the Soldier has identified an issue.
"The validation process is constantly being improved upon," said Mobley. "At this point in time the validation interface has been updated, with the next stage of improvements being the ability to create and manage action plans directly during the process of validation."
An example of how AWCTS can assist units in managing a wounded, ill and injured Soldier's concern is someone who must get to an appointment but can no longer drive. This information is then entered into AWCTS, whereby the squad leader or nurse case manager can document the steps taken to resolve the issue, or task the issue to other cadre at the WTU.
AWCTS also plays a role in career and education readiness, helping to track the progress of Soldiers preparing to transition to the civilian workforce. A complete overhaul of AWCTS has been conducted in terms of CER functionality, enabling much more in-depth reporting.
According to Mobley, AWCTS serves as a hub of documentation for the Comprehensive Transition Program process, keeping track of what a WTU is doing to support wounded, ill and injured Soldiers. "This useful communications platform helps to show how a Soldier is progressing through the program," says Mobley.
Through focus groups conducted in order to assess the needs of AWCTS users, valuable information is obtained so as to continually cut back on the time it takes to enter and assess information. In doing so, WCT is ensuring that AWCTS is undergoing continuous improvement via user-driven design, in addition to ensuring that WTU staff and cadre know that they are being listened to and that people care about what they have to say.
Social Sharing