Not long ago, I read an article titled, “What health care can learn from the military.” As a former member of the US Army, I was intrigued. I learned many things in the military that I use everyday in the clinic. Before that, I employed things I learned to help me get through medical school. My military experience gave me some fantastic skills. None were brought up in that previous article. So, let me build on that groundwork.
Both the US Army and the US Healthcare industry have long histories and extensive traditions. One of the lessons the US Army has learned with tradition is its fundamental role is to build trust and esprit de corps. The traditions serve to anchor a person’s place into his or her squad, team, unit, and on up the organization. To help service this esprit de corps, the US Army has a whole training command in place to research, plan, and carry out methods to continue to maintain it. At a lower level, commanders are expected to communicate regularly to their units, be open about what plans and strategies are, listen to the troops, and pay careful attention to their “combat readiness.” Based on our current physician burnout rate, this is a lesson many organizations could take notes from.
The US Army is one of the largest, longest lasting training organizations in continuous existence. Unlike an insurance company, a hospital, or a university, when the US Army wants a general, it promotes someone who used to be a second lieutenant. When it wants a Command Sergeant Major, it promotes someone who used to be a private. The US Army spends a lot of time and energy in leader development. You can be ensured that every NCO and officer in the US Army has had the level of leadership training the regulations require for his or her rank. If he or she hasn’t, he or she will get demoted. Also, every unit has an NCO development plan and an officer development plan in place and being used. This is to ensure that a baseline level of leadership training has been had by all leaders, from squad leaders on up to the General of the Army. I experienced no such thing in medical school, and only rudimentary processes in some hospitals I did clerkships in.
As part of career development, the US Army ensures that every member is mentored and evaluated periodically by his or her immediate superior. Suffice it to say in medical school and afterward, even when I confronted my attendings or senior residents, this rarely happened with an acceptable level of skill or honesty.
Far beyond campaign and theater tactics, the lessons individual people in healthcare want, need, and desire to help become better leaders and team members in healthcare are available to be learned as well. The clinic office and hospital ward are like war. You go into them with the army, or team, that you’ve got. Luckily, we have military veterans employed in healthcare who are more than able to help develop their teams, and there are also published documents from the US Army on current best practices of the very things I just described.
Jared Solomon is a former US Army medic, a non-commissioned officer, and an EMS educator. He is participating in the current National Resident Matching Program and volunteers at one of the largest free clinics in the United States.
