By Elyce Bishop, MSN, RN

The honorable men and women of the United States Armed Forces and their families have answered our country’s call to serve with dedication, courage and sacrifice.

An estimated 22 million active duty service members and veterans are currently living in the United States. With the addition of their dependents and family members, that total is nearly 70 million. As a society, we have incurred a moral obligation to care for these individuals that have sacrificed so much with reverence, compassion, and true understanding. We know that this population has unique health concerns and are in need of competent, accessible and culturally sensitive primary and specialty care services.

In order to properly address the holistic needs for this population, we at Holy Cross Health are proud to give back to those who have given so much for us through our Military and Veterans Health Program (MilVet). Providers, clinicians and staff have undergone training to understand and correctly respond to the health concerns and challenges specific to this military community.

The goal of this program is to provide military service members, veterans and their families convenient access to high-quality, culturally sensitive, people-centered health care services that meet their specific needs.

It’s vital that providers and staff are trained and educated in military and veterans health. The training and education program is designed to help providers understand and respond to the health concerns and challenges specific to the military community. In training, we review:

• understanding military culture, including the nuances of various military service branches;

• key illnesses, injuries and occupational exposures associated with military service and military deployments; as well as mental health disorders like PTSD, addiction, and sleep disturbances

• the effect of military service and deployments on family members; and

• how to provide competent and compassionate care for current and former female and LGBTQ service members

Active work for the Military and Veteran Program at Holy Cross Health has been underway since July 2019. The MilVet Program launched publicly in March of 2020, and as the COVID-19 pandemic reached Florida, the focus our work at Holy Cross changed drastically. We are proud to have the in-person cultural competency training underway again and have trained over 1,000 clinical and non-clinical colleagues.

We must take care of the 80-85% of veterans that do not get their care at the VA. Veterans want to be understood and communicated with effectively. It’s more than just ‘thank you for your service,’ it is also delivering to them patient-centered care that keeps their sacrifice at top of mind. There are gaps in clinical care needs and as a community we need to step up to fill those gaps. That’s what programs like MilVet accomplish.

Making sure the healthcare team is aware of the presence of a service member, veteran and/or family members during the patient registration process, the program has created and is supplying patient bracelets, patient room magnets, special badge clips and military branch flags/posters.

We owe this focused care to our veterans and their families who have selflessly sacrificed for our country. Holy Cross Health endeavors to be active and former service members trusted health partner for life.

Elyce Bishop, MSN, RN is a proud Navy spouse, FirstChoice Float Pool Nurse Manager and MilVet Program Champion and Trainer at Holy Cross Health. She can be reached at (954) 776-3215 or elyce.bishop@holy-cross.com.