Critical Thinking Application

Critical Thinking Application

In every job, in every organization, or business critical thinking exist in some form. It may be the CEO of a large corporation determining how best to enter a new market or an employee deciding the most efficient way to accomplish his job. The difference is the level and detail critical thinking used from one to the other. This paper discusses what the Recovery Care Program provides to soldiers and how different aspect of the Recover Care Coordinator's job effect critical thinking. The writer gives an example of his experience using critical thinking and the importance and benefits thereof.

The Recover Care Coordinator works under the Recovery Care Program in providing guidance and assistance to wounded, ill, or injured Army Reserve soldiers accessing benefits and entitlement as the transition through the medical care processes. The Recovery Care Coordinator advocates for the soldier during the entire continuum of care to include recovery, rehabilitation, and reintegration phases. Additionally, the program provides assistance in negotiating federal and state systems, non-profit financial, educational, legal, and non-medical resources.

Several factors assist or hamper the Recover Care Coordinator from effectively doing their jobs. First, lack of immediate supervision places all decisions involving soldier's cases squarely on the coordinator. Coordinators must fine tune their decision making process to ensure adequate assessment of soldier's needs. Second, time management is crucial in dealing with the many cases coordinators handle. Most use a triage system based on severity of issue or deadline to determine which case receives attention on what day. Next, soldier's supervisory involvement or lack thereof influences how the coordinator must use critical thinking skills to reach favorable results. Last, the soldier should assist the coordinator in resolving issue that concerns him. One may think a soldier would do all that is possible to help their own cause. However, some want the work done for them while others try to game the system by receiving benefits not entitled to them. Coordinators must discern which benefits and entitlements are available to the soldier while maintaining an unemotional attachment.

I am working on a case where an Army Reserve soldier suffers from Alzheimer's disease and unable to work on his civilian job for over a year. His assigned unit overlooked the issue and gave him light duty assignments because this was his only source of income. Now, the soldier's condition deteriorated and the Army found him unfit for military duty. His wife works but burdened with the task of providing continual care for her husband that lesson her work hours reducing income. They have very little support outside of one son living three states away and an aging mother. My first action was to move this case to the top of