Veteran and Family Health: Building Competency With Unfolding Cases

• Only 40% of veterans receive care through a Veteran's Health Administration facility.
• Nurses in a variety of health care settings are likely to work with veterans and their families.
• Unfolding cases and live-actor simulation are associated with high-level learning outcomes.
• Threading veteran-centric care concepts can be accomplished by building unfolding cases.
• Existing case studies can be adapted to provide a more veteran-centric point of view.

There are 22 million veterans in the United States and more than one million children who have a parent deployed in the military. As the number of veterans in need of health services increases, it is imperative for nurses in all care settings to understand the potential impact of military service on the veteran and their families. This article introduces an innovative set of unfolding live-actor cases used in classroom and simulation for students to gain competency in caring for veterans and their families. Adaptation of existing learning activities is one way to infuse veteran-related concepts into a program of study.