Posted by The United States Military is currently plagued by low recruiting numbers. According to the recruiting crisis is a national security threat article, in fiscal year 2022 the United States Military missed their goal of recruiting 60,000 new recruits by over 15,000 people. To further add to the recruiting pandemic, in fiscal year 23 the United States Military missed their amibitious goal of 65,000 new recruits by 10,000 people. In total, the current Regular Army is the “smallest since before WWII” (Recruiting Crisis 2024). In my experience in the United States Army, a successful unit in the army excels in four major areas, Maintenance, Command Supply, Readiness, and Training. With the extreme shortage of recruiting, Physical and Mental Readiness of the unit and each Soldier is more important than ever. Each Soldier that is injured has major impacts to the Unit, prevents proper training and impacts multiple echelons of leadership. The purpose of my Steam project is to research the common musculoskeletal injuries in the Military and identify preventive measures to relay to my formation, ensuring each Soldier has longevity in the Military to complete the mission.
Musculoskeletal injuries are incredibly prevalent in today’s Military. I recently finished 24 months of command of a deployable unit of around 74 Soldiers. At any given time, I had 20-24 Soldiers with a Medical profile for musculoskeletal injuries or behavioral health treatment. In my experience, majority of these injuries were of the appendicular skeleton in the appendages. Several Soldiers often complained of foot pain, knee pain, and hip pain. Fewer instances involved Soldiers complaining of back pain and shoulder pain. According to Non-Modifiable Risk Factors for Stress Fractures in Military Personnel Undergoing Training: A Systematic Review, stress fractures are a result of a repetitive stress etiology, are extremely prevalent among military populations, especially in military personal undergoing training (Lennox et al, 2021). Common factors in these stress fractures were prior stress fractures, elder Soldiers, menstrual dysfunction, and races other than black. Many of the patients in the study described that they experienced a sudden increase of physical activity. They elaborated that they didn’t have an adequate amount of time for recovery and didn’t ease into training neglecting the proper time for the musculoskeletal system to adapt to stress and build tolerance. The recommendations by Grace M. Lennox and authors to reduce stress fractures in Soldiers include tailoring physical training for the older trainees, easing into training and physical activity, and changing the amount of time for training events. Instead of short intense training they recommend making it longer and decrease the intensity to better facilitate recovery and adaptation.
Fractures are not the only common musculoskeletal injury in the military. According to Supporting the Frontlines: A Scoping Review Addressing the Health Challenges of Military Personnel and Veterans, military personnel and veterans meet extremely unique health challenges that stem from the complex interplay of their service experiences, the nature of the warfare, and their interactions with both military and civilian healthcare systems (Alruwaili et al, 2023). The Effects of Early Physiotherapy Treatment on Musculoskeletal Injury Outcomes in Military Personnel: A Narrative Review furtherdiscussed that there is a known underreporting of injures among military personnel, which results in unsuccessful and often harmful self-management of musculoskeletal injuries (Campbell et al, 2022). Accuracy of recall of musculoskeletal injuries in elite military personnel: a cross-sectional study revealed after reviewing medical records of 374 veterans, the most common injuries occurred in the lower and then upper extremities consisting of strains, sprains, and general pain (Lovalekar et al, 2017). In several cases, tendonitis, contusions, traumatic fractures, and stress fractures were identified. Soldiers often deal with injuries to tendons, joints, involving meniscus, ligaments, and cartilage. These injuries to soft tissues often compromise the integrity of joints and causes a significant amount of discomfort for Soldiers. If not treated properly, these injuries can further damage neighboring structures and quickly turn an easy recovery into a surgical procedure and long-term recovery.
My steam art project replicates the eight types of fractures. Stress fractures is technically a splintering of a bone and not a complete fracture. This weakened bone becomes prone to develop into one of the eight types of fractures. This ties into the class objective of classifying fractures in chapter 6. The 8 types of fractures are closed, open, transverse, spiral, comminuted, impacted, greenstick, and oblique. In my piece of art, I made 8 mock femurs out of cookie dough with 8 different types of breaks. Every single Soldier and United States Service member is extremely important for the safety and security of our country, increasingly so with our major retention shortages. Majority of articles agreed upon a similar plan to prevent musculoskeletal issues. Proper nutrition, sleep, exercise-work-rest-recovery cycles are instrumental in preventing injuries. Early intervention significantly impacts the outcome; therefore, every Service Member should seek healthcare assistance as opposed to home remedies.
References:
Alruwaili, A., Khorram-Manesh, A., Ratnayake, A., Robinson, Y., & Goniewicz, K. (2023). Supporting the Frontlines: A Scoping Review Addressing the Health Challenges of Military Personnel and Veterans. Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland), 11(21), 2870. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11212870
Campbell, P., Pope, R., Simas, V., Canetti, E., Schram, B., & Orr, R. (2022). The Effects of Early Physiotherapy Treatment on Musculoskeletal Injury Outcomes in Military Personnel: A Narrative Review. International journal of environmental research and public health, 19(20), 13416. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192013416
Lennox, G. M., Wood, P. M., Schram, B., Canetti, E. F. D., Simas, V., Pop e, R., & Orr, R. (2021). Non-Modifiable Risk Factors for Stress Fractures in Military Personnel Undergoing Training: A Systematic Review. International journal of environmental research and public health, 19(1), 422. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19010422
Lovalekar, M., Abt, J. P., Sell, T. C., Lephart, S. M., Pletcher, E., & Beals, K. (2017). Accuracy of recall of musculoskeletal injuries in elite military personnel: a cross-sectional study. BMJ open, 7(12), e017434. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-017434
RECRUITING CRISIS IS NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT, ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY, 23 Jan. 2024, www.ausa.org/news/paper-recruiting-crisis-national-securitythreat#:~:text=In%20fiscal%202022%2C%20the%20service,II%2C%E2%80%9D%20the%20authors%20write.
Sammito, S., Hadzic, V., Karakolis, T., Kelly, K. R., Proctor, S. P., Stepens, A., White, G., & Zimmermann, W. O. (2021). Risk factors for musculoskeletal injuries in the military: a qualitative systematic review of the literature from the past two decades and a new prioritizing injury model. Military Medical Research, 8(1), 66. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40779-021-00357-w
David’s STEAM project highlights the significant recruitment crisis the United States Military faces and the importance of each soldier’s physical and mental readiness, including musculoskeletal injuries, which impact this readiness.
David states that, in fiscal year 2022, the military fell short of its goal of 60,000 recruits by over 15,000 individuals; in fiscal year 2023, it missed its ambitious goal of 65,000 by 10,000. This issue has resulted in the smallest Regular Army since before WWII. Musculoskeletal injuries are prevalent and impact unit readiness and training. Stress fractures, strains, sprains, tendonitis, and joint issues are common, especially during physical activity training. Accurate injury reporting and early intervention are essential for effective management.
This STEAM project highlights the eight types of fractures, using mock femurs made of cookie dough to illustrate different breaks. This project emphasizes the importance of every service member’s health and the need for proper prevention and healing.