CRITICAL LEARNING INCIDENTS OF FEMALE ARMY NURSE VIETNAM VETERANS AND THEIR PERCEPTIONS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE IN A COMBAT AREA (WOMEN VETERANS, NURSES).
Contributors: University of Texas at Austin.
Published: 1993
Number of pages: 311
Subjects: Education, Curriculum and Instruction.; Education, Adult and Continuing.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: This retrospective descriptive study investigates unique critical learning incidents and perceived organizational culture described by female Army nurse Vietnam veterans. Questions answered were: (1) What is the nature of critical learning incidents described by female Army nurse Vietnam veterans during their service in Vietnam? (2) What is the relationship between the type of learning described by female Army nurse Vietnam veterans and the perceived organizational culture of military hospitals in Vietnam? (3) What is the nature of the difference between critical learning incidents of female Army nurse Vietnam veterans with less than vs. more than two years of professional nursing experience prior to their service in Vietnam?.

Seventy-five female Army nurse Vietnam veterans who consented to participate were sent a packet including letter, consent, questionnaire, and the Work Environment Scale by Moos. Thirty-six (48% return) subjects participated; all provided written questionnaires and 3 provided interviews. Content analysis identified and described major themes including: learning, context of war, professional, relationship, emotional, and other. Frequency analyses, Chi square, t-test, and two-way ANOVA determined statistical significance among the data. Learning incidents, all either informal or incidental, contained rating of type of learning, trigger(s) to learn (74% were of crisis or emergency nature in professional or context of war theme), who provided learning, enablers and barriers to learning, and outcome of learning. Self-learning occurred in 58%, while 31% was provided by others, and the remainder a combination of self-learning and learning from others. Enablers and barriers came from a variety of sources. Outcomes varied depending on the incident.

Incidental learning increased with work pressure while informal learning was related to control, especially among nurses with more than two years of experience. There were no other statistical differences based on years of professional experience, except nurses with less than two years tended to have trigger(s) to learning in the professional theme (p = 0.022).

This study adds to literature on female Army nurse Vietnam veterans and adult learning, and points to the need for more study. Female Army nurses contributed much to the war effort caring for the sick and wounded, under great adversity, while showing creativity in learning.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-01, Section: A, page: 0039.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN, 1993.

School code: 0227.