Meet the Readiness Standards

Introduction

These readiness standards were developed and implemented to uniformly determine an officer's fitness for duty. All officers currently on active duty, from the O-2 to the O-9, must meet these standards yearly in order to remain on active duty. This holds true for the Nurse Corps as well. The Nurse Corp will set the standard of excellence in compliance with these standards. Any Nurse Corps officer that chooses to ignore or does not meet these standards will be formally counseled, be subject to disciplinary action, or potentially be involuntarily removed from service if this takes place during the three year probationary period.

The development of an access database to receive and house all Nurse Corps Officer information that can be transported to the CCRF database. This database can be used by the Chief Nurse or her/his designee to run reports to indicate Nurse Corps strength and compliance with PHS policy and readiness standards.

APFT

Upon entry onto active duty each newly commissioned officer must take an APFT. This initial APFT can serve as a diagnostic or count for the record if passed by the officer. The test can be administered by an appointed training officer from one of the agency's or by an officer who passed the most recent APFT, is in good standing, meets the readiness standard, and is at least one full grade higher than the new officer.

APFT Cards can be accessed by clicking on "Meet the Readiness Standards" section of the Career Development Pathway or for more ease of use the NPAC should have its own Readiness page. After clicking on the hyperlink each officer will be able to enter their APFT information (age, sex, height, and weight) and receive an APFT score card listing all events including alternates and their corresponding scores, ranging from level IV to the level I fitness. This score sheet is to be completed and signed by the proctor upon completion of the activity. This information can be stored in a database and reports can be run indicating level of fitness for the Nurse Corps based on the scores achieved by the officers.

Medical History/Immunizations

On-line shot records/immunization records can be accessed by the aforementioned hyperlink as well. The officer will be able to look and see what immunizations are required for basic readiness. Also, from this page the officer will be able to download and print all necessary medical forms. Again, this can be used to run compliance reports for the Chief Nurse or her/his designee. Instruction will also be provided for officers on how to find the CCRF website and enter the appropriate information correctly into the database.

Clinical Standards

Licensure, BLS (ACLS, ATLS, and PALS if applicable), and clinical hours information can also be entered in the section.

Review of Information

An automatic notification will be sent out every six months instructing each officer to review their contact, deployment, employment, and updated supervisor information on the PHS nurse site (if feasible) and on the CCRF website. This notification will be sent out via the listserv. A report can also be run and saved indicating the officers who have reviewed and or updated their information after receiving the message.

Links

CCRF: http://oep.osophs.dhhs.gov/ccrf/