Hospital Corpsman 3 & 2: June 1989
Chapter 1: Hospital Corpsman - Professional Development
Naval Education and Training Command
Duties
Responsibilites
Patient Relationship
Professional Ethics
- Your First Responsibility is to Your Patients
- Your Second Responsibility is to the Team
- Your Third Responsibility is to the Hospital Corps
This training manual has been prepared for members of the Regular Navy and Naval Reserve in the hospital corpsman rating who are preparing for advancement to Hospital Corpsman Third Class (H-M3) and Hospital Corpsman Second Class (HM2). The occupational standards used in preparation of this manual are contained in the Manual of Navy Enlisted Manpower and Personnel Classifications and Occupational Standards, Section I, NAVPERS 18068 series, and are listed on pages iv through viii of this manual.
This manual is designed to help you meet the professional (technical) qualifications for advancement to HM3 and, subsequently, to HM2. For information about the material covered in the manual, refer to the chapter subject-matter outline. Study the subject matter of this manual carefully. It will not only help you toward advancement, but expand your knowledge as a hospital corpsman.
Your intentions are clear by the fact that you have this training manual in your hands; obviously you are seeking advancement. Up to the present time, you have been undergoing an indoctrination period in the Hospital Corps, learning the fundamentals of your rating. These fundamentals will always be a prime requisite for any advancement you may seek in the Hospital Corps.
At present you are an individual who has learned about ward duty, night duty, special watches and details and, in some instances, special departments. Generally speaking, you have spent most of your time at a naval hospital or other large shore installation, or if aboard ship, it has been on one that has a large medical department. You may also have been assigned to duty with the Fleet Marine Force. Most of the time you have been under the immediate supervision of a senior hospital corpsman or ward nurse, who was responsible for your actions. You were the follower.
The advancement for which you are now seeking will put you in a dual position: not only will you still be the follower and be responsible to your superiors, but by virtue of your rate, you will become a leader of those below you and in turn be responsible for their effective performance.
As a petty officer, your duty assignments will be enlarged and your scope of function will increase. More will be expected of you from your superiors, and your need for additional knowledge and skills will increase, not only within the realm of your job but also from a military standpoint. Additionally, you will be required to supervise and instruct those under you and be responsible for their work. Constant study, attention to detail, and alertness are required to keep you abreast of your duties.
Your responsibilities, as a petty officer, will increase, both professionally and militarily. Your advancement may make you the senior corpsman of your ward or possibly put you in charge of a special department such as the treatment room, clinic, record office, or sick call. Militarily, you may become a section leader, responsible for a number of people, their muster, and other administrative details such as liberty, duty rosters, emergency drills, and battle stations. Again, attention to detail and faithful study will enhance your future as a petty officer.
Since patients are our most important concern, you, as a petty officer, can do much to engender better patient morale within your organization. As a petty officer it is your responsibility to make sure that those under you practice good professional ethics at all times.
Professional ethics refers to the adherence to moral principles by members of a profession in the practice of that profession. As a hospital corpsman you must learn and adhere to a code of behavior that is based on sound moral beliefs and is so ingrained that it becomes a way of life. Your responsibility as a hospital corpsman is to exhibit ethical behavior in the three major areas as discussed below.
You must always recognize your obligation to give the best care that you are capable of giving to every patient committed to your charge. This care must reflect a belief in the worth and dignity of every patient as a human being. Courteous, efficient, and conscientious service is the mark of an outstanding corpsman. Respect for patients' right to privacy must always be honored, particularly when they disclose privileged information to you. Such information should never be repeated to any unauthorized person. Your patients' welfare is of paramount importance.
Physicians, nurses, and hospital corpsmen comprise the team dedicated to healing the patient. Mutual respect and understanding of the role and the person by each member is of vital importance to the success of the team. Cooperation of all the members is essential. The physician, as team leader, carries the overall responsibility for the welfare of the patient. The physician prescribes the medical treatment and oversees the total care of all patients. The nurse is responsible for meeting the nursing needs of the patient and ensuring that all of the physician's orders and nursing measures are carried out accurately. Both the physician and nurse are responsible for instructing hospital corpsmen in the performance of their duties.
The hospital corpsman is responsible for carrying out the physician's and nurses orders and giving proper nursing care to patients.
The heritage of the Hospital Corps places a special burden on every new member. You are responsible for upholding its proud tradition. The tradition of "service with distinction" has been established by your predecessors in every corner of the world and under every kind of adversity. Your patient, the members of the team you serve, and your shipmates deserve your respect and cooperation. They merit your confidence. Respect and confidence coupled with your skill will allow you to carry on in the proud tradition of the Hospital Corps. Professional ethics is the key to service with distinction.
The minimum skills, both professional and military, required for advancement to HM3 and HM2 are spelled out in the Manual of Navy Enlisted Manpower and Personnel Classifications and Occupational Standards (NAVPERS 18086 series). However, there are some skills that, although not officially required, are and will be desirable in an outstanding petty officer. Acquiring these skills is entirely up to you; however, having them will be decidedly to your advantage. Some of these desired skills are as follow:
- Clerical ability. Learn to read and complete medical forms, such as health records and medical reports, clearly and accurately.
- Ability to operate office machines, computers/word processors, and if available, various copying and duplicating machines. At one time or another you may be called upon to use this equipment.
- Ability to read and understand the various naval directives and regulations. Develop a working acquaintance with the Navy Directives System.
- Penmanship. Begin now to develop a neat, legible handwriting.
- Communication. Learn to express your thoughts in writing and practice good grammar. Listening is an important part of the process, especially in the health care area.
A hospital corpsman must develop many personal traits that apply to all petty officers. You can get a general understanding of them by referring to Military Requirements for Petty Officer Third Class (NAVEDTRA 10044) and Military Requirements for Petty Officer Second Class (NAVEDTRA 10045). The following traits, however, apply especially to your Hospital Corps duties and are essential for good performance.
As a petty officer you will be held responsible for your personal debts and financial dealings. Always obey the following cardinal rules:
- Never have any financial dealings with patients or those under you. Violating this cardinal rule will always lead to trouble and embarrassment for you and your command.
- Always pay your bills on time. Letters of indebtedness have ruined many a service career, often many years after the debts were incurred.
- Live within your means and, except under extreme emergencies, do not borrow money that you can not pay back without upsetting your budget.
Good personal habits, cleanliness, neat haircuts, and spotless, correct uniforms are absolute musts in the Hospital Corps. Ours is a profession in which we meet the public constantly, and the medical public always seems to be more critical of appearance. The personal appearance and attitude of the staff does much to enhance the overall reputation of the Navy Medical Department and reinforces our role as health care teachers.
Nowhere in the Navy is the need for personal integrity so great as in the Hospital Corps where we are continually dealing with people, their troubles, illnesses, and personal problems. This knowledge falls into the category of "privileged communication." We, as hospital corpsmen, have no right whatsoever to divulge any medical information, however trivial, to any unauthorized individuals. Medical information is prime gossip material. This is sometimes difficult to remember but should remain an absolute must for professional integrity.
Integrity also encompasses adherence to commitments, commonly referred to as keeping one's promise. Whatever the commitment, whatever the price, your word is your bond-until broken.
One important commitment that all corps personnel have is the obligation to never abuse or to tolerate the abuse by others of the controlled medical substances that we have access to. These medications are on the ward or in the mount-out block for use, under a medical officer's supervision, in the care and rehabilitation of patients. Any other use must not be tolerated.
Naval leadership is based on personal example, good management, and moral responsibility. All of the personal traits previously discussed are also leadership traits. Success of the Medical Department rests heavily on the petty officer. Good petty officers are the backbone of the Navy whether they are supervising military or specialist duties. Many examples of effective leadership you learn may be by the examples set by officers and senior petty officer. The best way to learn effective leadership is by practicing it.
Many of the rewards of Navy life are earned though the advancement system. Some of these rewards are easy to see. You receive more pay, job assignments become more interesting and more challenging, and you are regarded with greater respect by officers and enlisted personnel. Also, you enjoy the satisfaction of getting ahead in your chosen Navy career.
However, the advantages are not yours alone. The Navy also profits. Highly trained personnel are essential to the mission of the Navy. Each time you are advanced, your value to the Navy increases two ways. First, you become more valuable as a specialist in your rating; and second, you become more valuable as a person who can train others. Thus you make far-reaching contributions to the entire Navy.
The NORMAL system of advancement may be easier to understand if it is divided into two parts:
- Those requirements that must be met for you to be qualified; that is, to be considered for advancement.
- Those factors that actually determine whether or not you will be advanced.
In order to qualify (be considered) for advancement, you must fulfill certain requirements. These requirements may change from time to time, but usually you must:
- Have a certain amount of time in pay grade.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the material in your mandatory rate training manuals by achieving a suitable score on your command's locally prepared and locally administered test, or by successfully completing the appropriate nonresident career course (NRCC), or in some cases, by successfully completing instruction in an appropriate Navy school.
- Complete all Personnel Advancement Requirements (PARS), NAVPERS 1414/4. These include required schools, performance tests, occupational standards, and correspondence courses for the next higher pay grade.
- Be recommended by your commanding officer.
- Demonstrate knowledge of military subjects. This is demonstrated by passing a locally administered Military Leadership Examination based on the naval standards (from NAVPERS 18068 series). Military leadership examinations are applicable for advancement to pay grades E-4 through E-7.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the technical aspects of your rate by passing a Navywide Advancement Examination based on the occupational standards applicable to your rate (from NAVPERS 18068 series, those standards listed at and below your rate level).
Remember that the occupational standards can change; check with your division officer or training officer to be sure that you know the most recent standards.
If you meet all the qualification requirements, you become a member of the group from which selections for advancement are made.
Advancement is not automatic. Meeting all of the requirements make you eligible, but does not guarantee your advancement. Some of the factors that determine which persons, out of all those QUALIFIED, will actually be advanced in rate are the score made on the advancement examination, the length of time in service, the performance marks earned, and the number of vacancies being filled in a given rate.
If a number of vacancies in a given rate exceeds the number of qualified personnel, then ALL of those qualified will be advanced. More often, the number of qualified people exceeds the vacancies. When this happens, the Navy has devised a procedure for advancing those who are BEST qualified. This procedure is based on combining three personnel evaluation systems:
- Merit rating system (Annual evaluation and commanding officer's recommendation)
- Personnel testing system (Advancement examination score-with some credit for passing previous advancement examinations)
- Longevity (seniority) system (Time in Rate)
Simply, credit is given for how much the individual has achieved in the three areas of performance, knowledge, and longevity. A composite, known as the final multiple score, is generated from these three factors. All of the candidates who have PASSED the examination from a given advancement population are then placed on one list. Based on the final multiple score, the person with the highest multiple score is ranked first, and so on, down to the person with the lowest multiple score. For candidates for E-4, E-5, and E-6, advancement authorizations are then issued, beginning at the top of the list, for the number of persons needed to fill the existing vacancies. Candidates for E-7 whose final multiple scores are high enough will be designated PASSED SELBD ELIGIBLE (Pass Selection Board Eligible). This means that their names will be placed before the Chief Petty Officer (CPO) Selection Board, a Naval Military Personnel Command (NAVMILPERSCOM) board charged with considering all so-designated eligible candidates for advancement to CPO. Advancement authorizations for those being advanced to CPO are issued by this board.
Who, then, are the individuals who are advanced? Basically, they are the ones who achieved the most in preparing for advancement. They were not content to just qualify; they went the extra mile in their training, and through that training and their work experience, they developed greater skills, learned more, and accepted more responsibility.
While it cannot guarantee that any one person will be advanced, the advancement system does guarantee that all persons within a particular rate will compete equally for the vacancies that exist.
How to Prepare for Advancement
To prepare for advancement, you should (1) be aware of the requirements of your occupational standards, (2) work on the Personnel Advancement Requirements (PAR), and (3) study the required rate training manuals and other material required for advancement in your rating. The following sections describe the publications with which you should be familiar and give practical suggestions on how to use them in your preparation for advancement.
Manual of Navy Enlisted Manpower and Personnel Classifications and Occupational Standards
The Manual of Navy Enlisted Manpower and Personnel Classifications and Occupational Standards, NAVPERS 18068 series, contains the occupational and naval standards for advancement to each pay grade. It consists of two sections. Section I describes the naval standards and occupational standards. Section II contains the Navy enlisted classification (NEC) codes.
Naval standards are expressed as the minimum skills and knowledge that apply to all ratings rather than to any one rating. Naval standards for third and second class petty officers deal with military conduct, naval organization, watchstanding, leadership, damage control, and other subjects that are required of petty officers in all ratings.
Occupational standards define tasks required of personnel within a particular rate and rating and are divided into subjectmatter groups.
If you are working for advancement, you should remember that you are responsible for the occupational standards applicable to the rate for which you are taking the examination and for the standards of the lower pay grade(s) in the rating.
Personnel Advancement Requirements
One of the requirements used to determine eligibility for advancement is the completion of the Personnel Advancement Requirements (PAR), NAVPERS 1414/4. The purpose of the PAR is (1) to individualize advancement requirements for each rating and for rates within the rating, and (2) to provide a consolidated checklist of performance requirements that you can use in preparing for advancement. The PAR is not only used in determining your readiness for advancement, but it is also used as a basis for recommending you for advancement. It can provide a record of progress toward, and a history of, your advancement.
The PAR sheet for your rating is designed as a checklist of the various minimum requirements for advancement. As you demonstrate your ability to perform each requirement, appropriate entries are made in the DATE and INITIALS columns. The requirements are presented in three sections:
- Section I, Administrative Requirements
- Section II, Formal School and Training Requirements
- Section III, Occupational and Military Ability Requirements
Until completed, the NAVPERS 1414/4 is usually held by your division officer; after completion, it is forwarded to the personnel office for insertion into your service record. If you are transferred before qualifying in all requirements, the incomplete form should be forwarded with your service record to your next duty station. You can save yourself a lot of trouble by making sure that this form is actually inserted in your service record before you are transferred. If the form is not in your service record, you may be required to start all over again and requalify in the requirements that have already been checked off.
Bibliography For Advancement Study
The Bibliography for Advancement Study, NAVEDTRA 10052, is a very important publication for any enlisted person preparing for advancement. This bibliography lists the required and recommended rate training manuals and other reference material to by used by personnel working for advancement.
NAVEDTRA 10052 is revised and issued once each year by the Chief of Naval Education and Training. Each revised edition is identified by a letter following the NAVEDTRA number. When using this publication, by SURE that you have the most recent edition.
The required and recommended references are listed by pay grade in NAVEDTRA 10052. If you are working for advancement to third class, study the material that is listed for third class. If you are working for advancement to second class, study the material that is listed for second class; but remember that you are also responsible for the references listed at the third class level.
In using NAVEDTRA 10052, you will notice that some rate training manuals are marked with an asterisk (*). Any manual marked in this way is MANDATORY-that is, it must be completed at the indicated rate level before you can be eligible to take the Navywide examination for advancement. Each mandatory manual may be completed by (1) passing the appropriate NRCC that is based on the mandatory training manual, (2) passing locally prepared tests based on the information given in the training manual, or (3) in some cases, successfully completing an appropriate Navy school.
Do not overlook the section of NAVEDTRA 10052 that lists the required and recommended references relating to the naval standards for advancement. Personnel in ALL ratings must complete the mandatory military requirements training manual for the appropriate rate level before they can be eligible to advance.
The references listed in NAVEDTRA 10052 that are recommended but not mandatory should also be studied carefully. ALL references listed in NAVEDTRA 10052 may be used as source material for the written examinations at the appropriate rate levels.
Rate Training Manuals
There are two general types of rate training manuals. RATING manuals (such as this one) are prepared for most enlisted ratings. A rating manual gives information that is directly related to the occupational standards of ONE rating. SUBJECT-MATTER manuals or BASIC manuals give information that applies to more than one rating.
Rate training manuals are revised from time to time to keep them up-to-date technically. The revision of a rate training manual is identified by a letter following the NAVEDTRA number. You can tell whether any particular copy of a training manual is the latest edition by checking the NAVEDTRA number and the letter following this number in the most recent edition of List of Training Manuals and Correspondence Courses, NAVEDTRA 10061. (NAVEDTRA 10061 is actually a catalog that lists all current training manuals and courses; you will find this catalog useful in planning your study program.)
Each time a rate training manual is revised, it is brought into conformance with the official publications and directives on which it is based. But during the life of any edition, discrepancies between the manual and the official sources are almost certain to arise because of changes to the latter that are issued in the interim. In the performance of your duties you should always refer to the appropriate official publication or directive. If the official source is listed in NAVEDTRA 10052, the Naval Education and Training Program Management Support Activity uses it as a source of questions in preparing the fleetwide examinations for advancement. In case of discrepancies between any publications listed in NAVEDTRA 10052 for a given rate, the examination writers will use the most recent material.
Rate training manuals are designed to help you prepare for advancement. The following suggestions may help you make the best use of this manual and other Navy training publications when your are preparing for advancement.
- Study the naval standards and the occupa tional standards for your rating before you study the training manual and refer to the standards frequently as you study. Remember, you are studying the manual primarily in order to meet these standards.
- Set up a regular study plan. It will probably be easier for you to stick to a schedule if you can plan to study at the same time each day. If possible, schedule your study for a time of day when you will not have too many interruptions or distractions.
- Before you begin to study any part of the manual intensively, become familiar with the entire book. Read the preface and the table of contents. Check through the index. Thumb through the book without any particular plan, looking at the illustrations and reading bits here and there as you see things that interest you.
- Look at the training manual in more detail to see how it is organized. Look at the table of contents again. Then chapter by chapter, read the introduction, the headings, and the subheadings. This will give you a clear picture of the scope and content of the book. As you look through the book this way, ask yourself some questions:
- What do I need to learn about this?
- What do I already know about this?
- How is this information related to information given in other chapters?
- How is this information related to the occupational standards?
- When you have a general idea of what is in the training manual and how it is organized, fill in the details by intensive study. In each study period, try to cover a complete unit-it may be a chapter, a section of a chapter, or a subsection. The amount of material that you can cover at one time will vary. If you know the subject well, or if the material is easy, you can cover quite a lot at one time. Difficult or unfamiliar material will require more study time.
- In studying any one unit-chapter, section, or subsection-write down the questions that occur to you. Many people find it helpful to make a written outline of the unit as they study, or at least to write down the most important ideas.
- As you study, relate the information in the training manual to the knowledge you already have. When you read about a process, a skill, or a situation, try to see how this information ties in with your own past experience.
- When you have finished studying a unit, take time out to see what you have learned. Look back over your notes and questions. Maybe some of your questions have been answered, but perhaps you will have some that are not answered. Without looking at the training manual, write down the main ideas that you have gotten from studying this unit; do not just quote the book. If you cannot give these ideas in your own words, the chances are that you have not really mastered the information.
- Use nonresident career courses whenever you can. NRCCs are based on rate training manuals and basic manuals. As mentioned before, completion of a mandatory rate training manual can be accomplished by passing an NRCC based on the rate training manual. You will probably find it helpful to take other courses, as well as those based on mandatory manuals. Taking a course helps you to master the information given in the training manual, and it also helps you see how much you have learned.
- Think of your future as you study rate training manuals. You are working for advancement to third class or second class right now, but some day you will be working toward higher pay grades. Any extra information that you can learn will help you both now and later.