Empathy training helps medical students better understand Veterans

Hunt and his fellow Vietnam War Veterans know that the 1st Battalion, 9th Marines, was so named because it endured a high casualty rate during the war and was part of the siege of Khe Sanh, which saw the Marines endure 77 days of shelling and combat before being relieved.

Hunt wants to make sure it’s those “Walking Dead” who are remembered, and it was a key part of his talk during a recent Veteran Empathy Training session at the Milwaukee VA.

Started five years ago, the program involves Veterans meeting face-to-face with third-year medical students so they can learn, firsthand, about the Veteran experience.

“It gives them an eye-opening experience to the Veteran culture,” said Veteran Chris Swift, who has been with the program since the beginning. “A lot of medical students don’t have any experience with Veterans, but they likely are going to cross paths at some time with Veterans.”

The goal is to get them attuned to the unique needs of Veterans, which, in turn, will make them better doctors, said Milwaukee VA psychologist Zeno Franco.

“It’s about trying to get the students to better understand Veteran culture and experience so they can deliver better care,” he said. “We’re trying to dig deeper, so they have more personal conversations with Veterans so they can see what that Veteran’s life has been like and how that affects his care.”

Death in the air

While meeting with students Noah Miller and Mahmudar Rahman, Hunt sported his “Walking Dead” T-shirt and pointed out passages in a book about Khe Sanh. He also told his personal story of being wounded and watching his fellow Marines die.

“I was at Khe Sanh for 70 days, and all you could smell in the air was death,” he said.

He described a fellow Marine being shot in the head, his lifeless body crumpling across his own body. He talked about feeling a “tingly” sensation in his right hip, feeling it with his hand and seeing it covered in blood.

“Most Veterans won’t share what happened to them,” Hunt said. “But I’ve found that the more I talk about it, it helps me to get it out of my system.”

His advice to the students was succinct: “If somebody is talking — especially a Vet — just listen,” he said. “Don’t say nothing. Just let him talk. We have to let people be able to sit down and talk about their experiences.”

Both Miller and Rahman said they got the message.

“It makes me realize that people have a variety of experiences,” Rahman said. “Sometimes you can relate to their experiences, but other times, like in this case, you really have no context.

“You acknowledge that you’ll never be truly able to understand what some of these Veterans have gone through, but you respect the fact that they’ve gone through something traumatic, and respect how they feel. And just listen.”

Miller agreed.

“Chances are I’m never going to experience anything near what Malcolm has gone through in his life,” he said. “So you listen and try to absorb as much as you can, and try to learn as much as you can.”

Franco said the exercise enforces the mantra that there’s more to health care than medicine.

“This gets them (the medical students) to understand different lives and trauma … and to think about what it means to truly heal someone and not just deliver care,” he said.

Understanding the population

In a different vein, medical student Sheyenne Tung said her talk with Vietnam Veteran Charlie Walton taught her some life lessons as well as the Veteran experience.

“Charlie has given me a lot of awesome life advice about things he’s learned along the way, a framework for how he has approached life’s struggles,” she said. 

“He’s a Vet, but also a human being, a dad, a husband, a friend, a colleague. It’s good to have an understanding of the population I’m working with and how those life experiences have shaped them.”

Swift agreed, saying it’s not just a Veteran’s combat or service experience that’s important to understand; what happens after discharge is also important.

For him, that was a descent into alcoholism and some time spent in jail. 

“There are different realities for us compared to people who didn’t experience the Veteran lifestyle,” he said, noting higher incidence of substance abuse and suicide among Veterans than the civilian population.

 “We want (the students) to get a taste of what it’s like to deal with Veterans — the highs and lows, and some of things we went through,” he said.

“We’re not special; we’re just unique. Veterans just deal with things differently, but they need help like everybody else.”