Voices of women veterans: My Life, My Story.

PURPOSE

To explore women veterans' experiences by writing short stories of their lives as part of a program, My Life, My Story (MLMS), and qualitatively analyzing the aggregate stories to identify themes, risks, and opportunities for changes in care.

METHODS

We interviewed women veterans receiving care and/or working at the James J. Peters VA Medical Center in the Bronx, N.Y. Women researchers experienced in the narrative storytelling model, MLMS, wrote participants' short stories. Twenty-two stories were written, aggregated, coded, and reviewed multiple times until saturation; no new themes emerged. The researchers established trustworthiness, consistency, and credibility.

RESULTS

Themes from data from the stories of women veterans included reasons for choosing a military career, military and postmilitary experiences, psychological and military sexual trauma (MST), access to mental health care and support, antiwomen/misogynistic perceptions, relationships, life after military service, experiences with VA care and services, and future goals.

CONCLUSION

Women veterans have very different military and postmilitary experiences from men. Given the increasing number of women veterans who experience homelessness, MST, and posttraumatic stress disorder, providers, the healthcare community, and the public need to hear the voices of women veterans, learn about their military experiences, and redesign women veterans' healthcare to better meet their unique needs by improving supportive mental and physical health care services.