Ron Haskell is a Senior Marketing and Communications Specialist with the Employee Education System at the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Along with his duties internal to VHA, Ron serves as the point of contact for marketing courses on VHA TRAIN. He joined VHA in January 2017. Prior to VHA, Ron was a Communications Specialist with the Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau where he handled a wide range of communications duties including email outreach, developing website content and speech writing. Ron holds a Master of Arts in Communication degree and a Bachelor of Arts degree in History, both from Hawai’i Pacific University.
Many public health professionals are familiar with the importance of environmental exposure related issues. That said, it is not clear how many public health professionals and community providers know about the exposure and health related concerns facing a unique community – that of our Veterans. As the largest provider of health care service to the Veteran community, the breadth of services and care we offer at VA are unmatched. But, as the VA needs of Veterans grow, being able to collaborate with the 500,000 providers in the Community Care Network becomes more and more important to ensuring the best possible outcomes for our Veterans.
As part of that collaboration, VA is producing high-quality, free accredited medical training, specifically tailored to treating our Veterans. As more Veterans receive care outside of VA, it becomes essential that community providers have access to this free training through
VHA TRAIN.
A recent example of creating Veteran-specific foundational training for providers is a pair of modules added by our War-Related Injury and Illness Study Center and Post-Deployment Health Services- a VA Delivered Foundational Service. As concerns surrounding post -deployment health continue to rise, it is imperative that community providers have knowledge of Veteran health issues, awareness of deployment exposures and how to assess and manage them.
- Informs learners about role/importance of deployment-related exposure assessment
- Identifies steps for determining deployment-related environmental exposures
- Provides post-deployment health resources/approaches to communication about deployment-related environmental exposures
- Provides clinicians with the knowledge needed to identify/understand deployment-related airborne hazards concerns
These e-learning courses help ensure that providers caring for Veterans have the knowledge needed to address Veterans’ unique deployment health concerns. The latest module focuses on understanding and managing Gulf War Illness- stay turned for that as well as other important topics in deployment health!
- Provides clinicians with the knowledge needed to identify, diagnose, manage and appropriately treat Gulf War illness in Veterans
As we continue to build our
course catalog with hot topics ranging from opioid, addiction and pain management to treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, we invite those providing care for Veterans to
subscribe to specific health care training topics. This subscription provides learners with periodic VHA TRAIN e-Blasts and other news tailored to their areas of interest, greatly enhancing the Veterans’ ability to receive the exceptional, coordinated and connected care they deserve.