The Health Care Specialist Course trains Active Army, Army Reserves, Army
National Guard and various international students in basic medical care, culminating in
the possession of the EMT-B certification. The course is conducted in a stressful
environment where students are required to be successful in both academic and
nonacademic domains. Within the last decade, course administrators have noticed a
higher rate of attrition and requested assistance with understanding why one-fifth of
students fail to graduate with their original unit. A high rate of attrition results in an
increased use of resources and it decreases the Army’s ability to provide qualified Health
Care Specialists to forward units.
The purpose of this study was to understand how noncognitive factors contribute
to attirition in the Health Care Specialist Program with students who were within their
first six months of training. This study specifically focuses on the experiences of the
recyled student. The Modified Noncognitive Questionnarie (NCQ) and the Military
Environment Noncognitive Adjustment Scale (MENAS), which focused on measuring
noncognitive variables, were used with both passing and recycled students. In addition, an interview was used for recycled students to allow them the opportunity to elaborate
on their personal experiences.
This mixed methods explanatory research study revealed quantitatively, using the
t-test, that a significant difference exists between the passing and recycled groups in
their: level of motivation, realistic self-appraisal, battle buddy support, unit support,
preference for long-term goals, ability to successfully handle racism, and their level of
stress. Logistic regression revealed the following to be predictive of attrition for students
participating in this course: low ST score, unrealistic self-appraisal, preference for shortterm
goals, low perception of battle buddy support and unit support, a high level of stress
and low motivation to complete the course. Qualitative results were consistent with
quantitative results and added a deeper understanding of how students negotiated the
academic and military environment. The results of this study will contribute to course
administrators understanding of the challenges that student’s encounter while
matriculating through this course.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-1487 |
| Date | 15 May 2009 |
| Creators | Woods, Yvette |
| Contributors | Clark, M. Carolyn |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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