Army Performance Triad Verified As Success, SDN MilMed Forum Forced to Shut Down

[dr zaius]

http://health.mil/News/Articles/2014/06/26/Army-Doc-Sheds-Pounds-with-Performance-Triad

This novel idea clearly works.

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Members don't see this ad.

 

[Homunculus]

well, if at baseline he didn't meet weight (was 5lbs over i think for 6'3") i think i know why:

“Before I just focused on exercise and thought I could eat whatever I wanted,” he added

not to worry-- he soon discovered this mind blowing fact:

“Weight loss is really simple: eat less, exercise more,” he said. “It’s about balancing what you eat with your activity level.”

truly the cutting edge of medical science and discovery.

--your friendly neighborhood the dawn of a new era in wellness is here caveman

 

[deleted480308]

well, if at baseline he didn't meet weight (was 5lbs over i think for 6'3") i think i know why:

not to worry-- he soon discovered this mind blowing fact:

truly the cutting edge of medical science and discovery.

--your friendly neighborhood the dawn of a new era in wellness is here caveman

coach always said, "you can't outrun a fork"

 

[BigNavyPedsGuy]

I've been out of the Navy exactly a year now. I've also lost 32 pounds in the last 3 months. I did the classic no-PT for quite some time. But I find it ironic that I'm healthier now than I've been in 8+ years and I think a lot of that has to do with being a civilian and working for an organization that cares about my health outside of a twice/year PRT.

Here's a plug for the MyFitnessPal app and website.

 

[colbgw02]

Has the OTSG come down on smoking yet? I'm thinking of taking up cigarettes.

 

[Homunculus]

Has the OTSG come down on smoking yet? I'm thinking of taking up cigarettes.

no- they're leaving that for the next surgeon general so they can add it to it and make a performance tetrad.

--your friendly neighborhood have you guys heard of this stuff called "sunscreen?" caveman

 

[dr zaius]

no- they're leaving that for the next surgeon general so they can add it to it and make a performance tetrad.

--your friendly neighborhood have you guys heard of this stuff called "sunscreen?" caveman

Don't give away your future OER bullet points

 

[HighPriest]

Actually, they're beginning to enforce a policy by which any uniformed personnel attached to a hospital can get written up for smoking while in uniform. It was the first step back from simply banning smoking in uniform. It is the classic "half-ass it and make sure the line is drawn in the most arbitrary way possible" Army rule. It doesn't effect civilian employees, of course, AND you can still smoke in your POV....so....it's meaningless.

What I love about the performance triad is that it's exactly the type of advice someone pretending to be a provider would give. The irony of that is not lost. It's like a skit from Spies Like Us or a Lampoons movie, just a really obvious set of recommendations presented as if it was something other than common knowledge, and all the yes men are clapping because they don't know anything about healthcare either. Every time I hear it I picture the information being delivered by Chevy Chase dressed like a physician and trying not to get caught. I feel like they're going to ask me for a urine sample afterwards, just to make it seem official....wait, that's exactly what they do....

 

[HighPriest]

"Uh, doctor, what can I do to stay healthy?"

"Well, it's simple really, don't do stuff that's not healthy. Now how about that urine sample?"

 

[HighPriest]

By the way, the performance tetrad will include healing touch therapy. Mark my words.

 

[HighPriest]

And Myfitnesspal is great. I actually trust it more than the performance triad.

 

[ARMYDOCWIFE]

The good COL O'Brien is either looking for a command or protection from being forced to be PCSd like all other Army docs among their things, If any provider gives credit to the performance triad as being "new, innovative or groundbreaking" idea they have drunk the kook-aid.

Seriously folks...did the AMEDD send out an email and ask what providers have lost weight?

 

[j4pac]

I'm sure he got a ribbon for being in weight standards. The army gives medals for everything.

 

[pgg]

I'm sure he got a ribbon for being in weight standards. The army gives medals for everything.

No kidding, Army award candy is a joke.

I was at our GME meeting the other day and we were talking about awards for graduating residents. Which haven't been given out at all for years here ... the year I started residency (2006) one of our two graduating chief residents got an achievement medal for being chief and scoring a 99th %ile on the in-training exam. None since. The Navy doesn't give out medals for not flunking out of residency.

But apparently every single Army resident who graduates from the NCC program gets a Joint Commendation Medal.


I see Army guys with ribbons and medals and I just assume they got them for not screwing up the pizza order for the last command picnic. Which is kind of unfortunate.

The Marines have the opposite problem. I see a Marine with a NAM and I figure he did something moderately heroic in combat, but not arbitrarily heroic enough to warrant the V.


I'm only 42% kidding.

 

[Slevin]

No kidding, Army award candy is a joke.

I was at our GME meeting the other day and we were talking about awards for graduating residents. Which haven't been given out at all for years here ... the year I started residency (2006) one of our two graduating chief residents got an achievement medal for being chief and scoring a 99th %ile on the in-training exam. None since. The Navy doesn't give out medals for not flunking out of residency.

But apparently every single Army resident who graduates from the NCC program gets a Joint Commendation Medal.


I see Army guys with ribbons and medals and I just assume they got them for not screwing up the pizza order for the last command picnic. Which is kind of unfortunate.

The Marines have the opposite problem. I see a Marine with a NAM and I figure he did something moderately heroic in combat, but not arbitrarily heroic enough to warrant the V.


I'm only 42% kidding.

As a former Marine I'll agree with the statement that the Army gives out way too many awards. My unit gives out awards for PCSing if you are E6 or higher and we've given out awards for soldiers that are getting out of the army. And none of these individuals ever did anything other than their job.

I was in the marines prior to 9/11 and I can count on my fingers the entire time I was enlisted that my unit gave out achievement awards.

My experience in the Army is look at how many awards/bandages/decorations I can attach to my uniform. It's quite disgusting as they value you not for what your job is but how many schools you have completed.

 

[deuist]

It's quite disgusting as they value you not for what your job is but how many schools you have completed.

True, getting a patch for jump school or HALO school is pretty ridiculous given that there are so many other training schools for the other services where no badges are given. Even after graduating medical school and residency and becoming a board-certified physician the only thing I have to show for it is a Medical Corps occupational badge – which I should add is optional to wear and still costs me money if I want to put it on my uniform.

 

[psychbender]

But apparently every single Army resident who graduates from the NCC program gets a Joint Commendation Medal.

Not accurate, unless they just changed something. All BAMC anesthesiology grads, though, get at least AAMs, while chiefs get ARCOMs. The Army does give out too many awards, though, and I have the monthly emails about the ceremonies at my hospital to prove it.

 

[pgg]

I stand corrected about NCC.

Maybe it was just some specialties. The PD who brought it up was pretty irritated about it all.

I think residents should be eligible for awards for high achievement, just like everyone else.

 

[BlackFrancis33]

I would argue we do a pretty terrible job in the medical corps with awards. Scoring the 99th %ile on in-training exams, publishing papers etc. are reasonable to reward. This is much more difficult than some of the things others do to get an ARCOM, and particularly an AAM. Kudos to the program director for trying to award exceptional resident performance.

 

[Monty Python]

I'm sure he got a ribbon for being in weight standards. The army gives medals for everything.

All six USNR members who backfilled with me in the Landstuhl anesthesia department for one year got ARCOMs ... for doing our job. None of us had any leadership or significant additional roles, since we were the Army's guests. Our ARCOM citations read the same except for names.

 

[d2305]

I never knew what the little "v" was until Boorda shot himself in the heart.

 

[sonofva]

No kidding, Army award candy is a joke.

I was at our GME meeting the other day and we were talking about awards for graduating residents. Which haven't been given out at all for years here ... the year I started residency (2006) one of our two graduating chief residents got an achievement medal for being chief and scoring a 99th %ile on the in-training exam. None since. The Navy doesn't give out medals for not flunking out of residency.

But apparently every single Army resident who graduates from the NCC program gets a Joint Commendation Medal.


I see Army guys with ribbons and medals and I just assume they got them for not screwing up the pizza order for the last command picnic. Which is kind of unfortunate.

The Marines have the opposite problem. I see a Marine with a NAM and I figure he did something moderately heroic in combat, but not arbitrarily heroic enough to warrant the V.


I'm only 42% kidding.

My class had 6 achievement medals awarded to a class of 30. All recipients had major leadership roles during the year, multiple publications, or other major achievements. Mind you this is down here in San An-blow-me-oh, not at the esteemed NCC.

 

[backrow]

I'm going to go against the grain a little here with the caveat that I'm not fully convinced of my own opinion.

I think every residency graduate should get at least an achievement medal and those that go beyond should be given a commendation medal unless they've been a dirtbag, failed years etc.

My thought process is two-fold:
1) completing residency is a major milestone in ones career that took anywhere from 3-7 years. Unlike other training pipelines which are nowhere near as long (eg flight school, etc) residents are actually helping the medical corps complete their mission while in residency. Completing residency is just that: an achievement.

2) future patients look at our ribbons as a level of competence. Now that isn't a correct assumption; however, many don't know better so they assume the more ribbons the more competent we are. In the Navy we can have people graduate and sent off to far flung places like Okinawa or Guam and they have a NDSM and a GWOTSM. The pt looks at them, sees a LT with two ribbons and that doesn't always instill a vote of confidence. Again, it's a bad assumption, but that's what they know from their day to day job. In the "real" Navy that LT should have at least one achievement/com medal and if they don't it's usually because they screwed the pooch at their first command.

Anyway, that's my thoughts on graduating resident awards, given we are pretty terrible in the medical corps at recognizing achievements it is at least one time we could.

 

[pgg]

Consistency is more important than where the bar is set. It's just ridiculous that graduating residents at Institution A all get COMs while over at Institution B the chief residents with multiple publications and 90+ exam scores get nothing because the policy is "residents don't get awards" ...

In general, I think the automatic end of tour award culture is wrong. We'd be better off without an officer equivalent of a good conduct stripe.

I'm not sure I agree that patients look at ribbons as an indicator of competence. Anyone with any connection to the military has got to know that medals at the achievement and commendation level are utterly divorced from actual achievement, and more often than not are just participation trophies. Excepting ones with 'V' devices, I suppose.

 

[backrow]

Anyone with any connection to the military has got to know that medals at the achievement and commendation level are utterly divorced from actual achievement, and more often than not are just participation trophies. Excepting ones with 'V' devices, I suppose.

Oh I completely agree with that statement, but doesn't that make it even worse when your doctor doesn't even have a single one despite being an O3 or potentially even an O4?

Did you ever work with a staff that was your same rank, but came in from FAP or deferred? When I went to the ward the nurses and corpsmen assumed I was the staff and I even had a few clinic patients that were initially confused.

 

[narcusprince]

The award system given to residents rewards in service trained physicians versus out service. I have known two out service physicians who were chief residents with 90+ percentile ite scores whom showed up to active duty with a national defense ribbon and a pistol qual. The award system rewards your collateral duties, and also is based on the previous medals you have obtained. Once you get a nam then you can get a com then you can get a msm no matter how hard you work. The reward for being chief and 90+% ite scores is when you apply to jobs. Ribbons and medals in my opinion should be given for outside of primary duty positions ie collaterals.

 

[pgg]

Once you get a nam then you can get a com then you can get a msm no matter how hard you work.

In the Navy at least, the bar for a MSM is still fairly high. Most O5 end of tours are still COMs. You're looking at a director-level job for a MSM, mostly.

The COM that I got for my last deployment was basically a participation medal. Every O4 got one.

I do agree that there's some progression built into the system, but I think it's kind of backwards from the way you described it. Not so much "he got a NAM so it's time for a COM" because lots of people get multiple NAMs. Maybe more of a "he got a COM so we can't give him just a NAM now" way of thinking.

 

[narcusprince]

Pgg, i knew an O-6 who did zero collateral duties and was given a com at the end of his tour because it would not be right to give a captain a NAM. This system as well as the fitrep system is broken. Reward people based on merit. The system needs smart guys to stick around to change it.

 

[Monty Python]

Pgg, i knew an O-6 who did zero collateral duties and was given a com at the end of his tour because it would not be right to give a captain a NAM. .

SECNAVINST 1650.1 limits NAMs to O-4 and below. The CAPT should have earned the COM, or shouldn't have received anything.

 

[Gastrapathy]

I tried to give a NAM as a retirement award to a lazy ROAD CAPT. It got thru the CO sig before it was caught and upgraded. That was fun.

As pgg said, the problem is consistency. Within the navy, it's Bethesda vs everyone else.