Military veteran entrepreneurs, also known as vetrepreneurs, form a unique entrepreneurial community based in part on their military-related skills and life experiences, the financial endowments derived from their service, and external influences like professional mentors and government-provided training programs. However, a research gap exists in the examination of the degree to which these factors meaningfully influence successful outcomes for military veterans who become small business entrepreneurs. Therefore, the research question for this project was: what experiences, endowments, and external influences impact successful entrepreneurial outcomes for small business vetrepreneurs? This exploratory research consisted of a mixed-methods approach involving a quantitative pilot study that included a survey of 70 veteran small business entrepreneurs (Study 1), and a qualitative case method study that included detailed interviews with 6 additional veteran entrepreneurs (Study 2). Among the findings in Study 1 were that military service is an advantage to vetrepreneurs, but traits such as education, military rank, job held in the military, and financial endowments were not. As discovered in Study 2, however, things like networking, passion for one’s business, and understanding administrative aspects of business are important contributors to successful outcomes. The implications for this research include potential updates to military pre-separation training programs, as well as providing useful data for both researchers and current or future vetrepreneurs. Keywords: Veteran Entrepreneurship, Vetrepreneur, Military Entrepreneurship / Business Administration/Entrepreneurship

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a serious condition with debilitating symptoms which affects military veterans and has been understudied in the older population. Aside from treating the veterans of the Vietnam War and World War II, as service members from more recent conflicts age, the mental healthcare system needs to be able to treat them with empathy and effective therapies. As there is a need for future research focusing on this population, this paper reviews the current literature and utilizes Grounded theory to further the research related to PTSD in aging veterans. A selection of mental health clinicians with experience treating this population were interviewed and the results discussed. Those therapists who work for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) most often use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to treat their clients, with Prolonged Exposure Therapy being the next most popular therapeutic modality. Those clinicians who are separate from the VA are able to employ therapies such as Cognitive Restructuring or blend theories to meet the precise needs of individual veterans. Also addressed are the differences and commonalities in PTSD symptoms between veterans of different conflict eras. Based upon these interviews, suggestions were made for changes to the treatment of military-related PTSD.

There is an established link between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and criminal activity. Of every 100 veterans who served during Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), 11 to 20 percent are diagnosed with PTSD each year. Previous research has documented that veterans are incarcerated at higher percentages compared to nonveteran inmates, though little published research examines incidence of PTSD relative to violent crime. Using Agnew's general strain theory as the foundation, the purpose of this correlational study was to examine combat service, PTSD, and specific violent crimes as defined by the FBI as murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assaults; while controlling for branch of service, age, and sex. The sample consisted of 46 OEF/OIF inmates (federal and state) 9 of whom were convicted of a violent crime. Results from the multiple logistic regression analysis showed that combat service, PTSD, sex, and branch of service were not statistically significant predictors of imprisonment of OEF/OIF veterans for violent crime. Age, however, was statistically significant p = .029. The findings of this study contribute to social change by providing policymakers and prison administrators nuanced information (i.e., characteristic information - age, sex, branch of service, etc.) about the needs of this unique prison population with regards to reintegration. This may in turn contribute to improved reintegration initiatives to enrich the lives of veterans, their families, and the communities where veterans reside when returning from war. Focusing on reintegration will be very beneficial.

The Non-Veteran Administration Care (NVC) is a program in which the Veterans Health Administration purchases health care when it cannot provide the health services needed for eligible Veterans. The rising cost of this program led to audits by the Office of the Inspector General and other entities. The scholarly problem for this DNP Project was the lack of oversight, accountability, and management, found throughout the audits of NVC, as well as a lack of evaluation of NVC. The purpose of this project was to ascertain if there was a relationship between the Non-VA Care Coordination program (NVCC) and utilization of care. The NVCC was implemented to eliminate the deficiencies cited by audits. Sleep study and chiropractic consults for FY 2013 (pre-NVCC) and FY 2014 (post-NVCC) were examined. Sleep apnea service was available at the local Veteran Administration Medical Center and chiropractic service was not. Utilization of care was determined by emergency room (ER) visits and admissions related to the consult. A logic model was used to conceptualize the project and the longer-term implementation and evaluation of NVCC, and descriptive statistics were used to analyze trends in the chiropractic data (sleep study consults were excluded from the analysis due to the minute number). There were a total of 859 chiropractic consults and 2,184 approved visits analyzed. The results revealed that Veterans who utilized the consults had no ER visits or admissions related to referrals for chiropractic consults. Completed chiropractic consults remained proportionality the same both years. NVCC had no association with the utilization of care. This scholarly project contributes to social change by empowering consumers and providing transparency in the government through audits that facilitate quality improvement and evaluation of the NVCC program.

<p> </p> <p>Though literature on the influence and efficacy of service dogs as a complementary and integrative health intervention option for a variety of needs (e.g., medical, mobility, psychiatric) continues to emerge, a focus on how service dogs are integrated into the everyday lives of their handlers remains understudied. This dissertation offers new insights to this previously understudied area by first comparing the expectations versus lived experiences of veteran service dog handlers with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and then focusing in on the influence of service dogs beyond the handler, looking at the influence of service dogs on spouses, family members and caregivers. Using a rigorous multi-modal approach, both qualitative and quantitative insights emerge regarding the integration of a service dog for the handler and their families. Findings suggest that understanding the similarities and differences between expectations and experiences may help to inform practitioners and interested recipients about the service dog intervention and help to set realistic expectations about the integration process. Additionally, in populations of psychiatric assistance dogs for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and in populations of mobility and medical alert assistance dogs, findings suggest that the benefits and challenges of the intervention reach beyond the service dog recipient and handler, extending to affect the wellbeing of their families and caregivers. Researchers and practitioners should work together to develop programs that integrate these findings to provide family-focused educational interventions where both positive and negative experiences are shared alongside strategies to overcome the challenges associated with integrating a service dog into a home prior to pairing. Providing this opportunity enables setting realistic expectations for this complementary and integrative intervention option which in turn may affect its efficacy and success throughout and beyond the integration process. </p>

Master of Arts / Department of History / Mark P. Parillo / Throughout the 1990s and into the twenty-first century, American society sought to record the stories of World War II veterans before they passed on. The United States Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2000 in order to collect stories not only from World War II veterans, but also from veterans of all wars. Although many similar programs existed before this one, this initiative stimulated the interest of communities all over the country to conduct oral history projects of their own. As a result, the availability of veterans’ accounts improved for scholars as well as for the general public. Along with veterans’ interviews, many collections include donated letters, diaries, and memoirs. Many of these institutions have posted their materials on the internet, thus giving easier public access to the sources. The increased availability of veterans’ accounts has shifted the question from, “What was the World War II veterans’ experience?” to “How do the veterans reflect on their experience?” This study analyzes the memories of World War II veterans who have documented their experiences at two separate times in their lives. It examines wartime letters and diaries written by soldiers as well as, oral histories conducted after the war. This study compares three veterans’ memories over time and the influence of collective memory on their remembrances. This case study finds that although these three veterans had very different experiences, they all reflected on their experience in similar ways. The veterans’ immediate accounts were straightforward and without introspection, while their later accounts included interpretation and analysis of their experiences. Although the details in each narrative are unique to the veteran, the overall tone and meaning of the memory constructed in their oral histories followed the meaning presented in the American collective memory of the war.

Master of Science / Special Education, Counseling and Student Affairs / Aaron H. Carlstrom / Attending college or university immediately after serving on active duty in the U.S. military can be a challenging transition because the daily roles and responsibilities of active duty service members greatly differ from that of college students. Therefore, the purpose of this report is to provide an accurate portrayal of the experiences and challenges veterans encounter when they leave the armed forces and become students at a college or university. The report is a resource that academic advisors and other student affairs professionals can use to increase their awareness and understanding of veterans’ transition experiences from military life to college life. To achieve this goal, the following are included in the report: (a) a theory driven description of veterans’ needs and concerns as they transition from military to college, and available resources that can facilitate veterans’ transitions; (b) questions advisors should ask themselves and their respective institution regarding how they can better serve this population of students; and (c) three case studies of student-veterans who served at least two, but no more than four, years of active duty in the United States Armed Forces, and who chose to enroll in an institution of higher education shortly after their discharge from the military. The four coping mechanisms, or four S’s (Situation, Self, Support, Strategies), of Schlossberg’s Transition Theory (Schlossberg, Waters, & Goodman, 1995) serve as the organizing framework of the report. Although some articles have touched upon Schlossberg’s transition model to the student-veteran transition (DiRamio, Ackerman, & Mitchell, 2008; Livingston, 2009), none used the model as a framework to organize the relevant literature.

The purpose of this research is to inform the understanding of mental health readmissions by identifying associations between individual and environmental attributes and readmissions, with consideration of the impact of time-to-readmission within the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Mental illness affects one in five adults in the United States (US). Mental health disorders are among the highest all-cause readmission diagnoses. The VHA is one of the largest national service providers of specialty mental health care. VHA's clinical practices and patient outcomes can be traced to US policy, and may be used to forecast national outcomes should these same policies be implemented nationwide. In this research, we applied three different data mining techniques to clinical data from over 200,000 patients across the VHA. Patients in this cohort consisted of adults receiving VHA inpatient mental health care between 2008 and 2013. The data mining techniques employed included k-means cluster analysis, association-rule mining, and decision tree analysis. K-means was used during cluster analysis to identify four statistically distinct clusters based on the combination of admission count, comorbidities, prescription (RX) count, age, casualty status, travel distance, and outpatient encounters. The association-rule mining analysis yielded multiple frequently occurring attribute values and sets consisting of service connection type, diagnoses/problems, and pharmaceuticals. Using the CHAID algorithm, the best decision tree model achieved 80% predictive accuracy when no readmissions were compared to 30-day readmissions. The strongest predictors of readmissions based on this algorithm were outpatient encounters, prescription count, VA Integrated Service Network (VISN), number of comorbidities, region, service connection, and period of service. Based on evidence from all three techniques, individuals with higher rates of system-wide utilization, more comorbidities, and longer medication lists are the most likely to have a 30-day readmission. These individuals represented 25% of this cohort, are sicker in general and may benefit from enrollment in a comprehensive nursing case management program.

<p>Research on the military has historically focused on the potentially de-stratifying effects of service, including reductions of racial inequality and social mobility. Taking a life course approach, this prior research tends to claim that the military is a positive turning point in the lives of disadvantaged men. Scholars point to the educational benefits of the GI Bill, racial integration, and health care to claim that military service, especially during peacetime, is largely beneficial to service members. While it is certainly the case that the military has provided some historical benefits to marginalized groups, recent research has given us strong reasons to question how beneficial military service is to stigmatized groups. Significant racial and gender inequalities remain, and in some cases, are deepening. Drawing on 50 in-depth interviews with veterans this dissertation examines how the organizational habitus of the military, despite organizational proclamations of meritocracy, may contribute to inequality. Focusing on the unintended consequences of military polices surrounding mental health problems, discrimination, and family relations, I create a synthesis of organizational and critical race theories to show how military policies may compound problems for soldiers and veterans. Focusing on the contradictions between stated organizational policies and actual practice, I show how the organizational arrangements of the military normalize overt expressions of racial and gender based discrimination, creating a sometimes-hostile environment for women and minorities and leaving them little recourse for recrimination. When policies protecting the stigmatized undermine the power and prerogatives of commanders or conflict with the militaries mission, it is not the powerful that suffer. Further, I show how military policies promoting family, such as extra pay for married soldiers, are at odds with the multiple deployments and high mental health incidences of this generations wars. Although the military relies on women on the "home front," as a basis of support, the exigencies of service undermine relationship stability. </p><p>I argue that traditional findings on the de-stratifying effects of service are partially a product of an analytical frame that neglects internal organizational dynamics.</p> / Dissertation

There is a great deal of literature in civilian rehabilitation settings that documents the tremendous impact a brain injury has on both the injured person and the family as a whole. TBI is a leading cause of both death and disability world-wide and is often cited as the signature injury of the ongoing OEF/OIF conflict. In 2005, Congress recognized the severity of injuries that military personnel were encountering in the OEF/OIF conflicts and created the Polytrauma System of Care (PSC). While the PSC has made great efforts to provide innovative and effective treatment for active duty and veteran patients, little is known about the needs of their family members. Given the tremendous impact TBI has on families and the important caregiving role assumed by many, there is an urgent need to better understand their needs. The Family Needs Questionnaire (FNQ) was administered to 44 family members of patients at the Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center (PRC) at McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) over a 30 month period. Family members rated 40 needs indicating the importance and extent to which needs were met. Results were compared with findings from similar studies in civilian rehabilitation settings. A review of the rated needs indicated that PRC families rated the needs in the Health Information domain as most important and most frequently met. In addition, PRC family members rated Emotional Support and Instrumental Support as least important and most frequently unmet. Overall results were consistent with findings in civilian rehabilitation research, but subtle differences were examined. Exploratory analyses were conducted to examine a subset of family variables associated with needs indices. Needs were rated differently based on respondents', gender, income, relationship to patient, and time since injury. Results highlight similarities across family needs in rehabilitation settings. However, there remains a need for further research within VAMC PRC's that include a larger more diverse sample and participants utilizing both inpatient and outpatient services.