The Comprehensive Female Soldier Support Model: A Delphi Study.

Women represent a small minority in the U.S. military and an even smaller minority in the military chaplaincy.  Prior to this study, the U.S. Army chaplaincy did not have a gender-specific model for providing support to women soldiers.  In this Delphi research project, wounded women soldiers and female military chaplains provided expert opinions to develop the comprehensive female soldier support model (CFS2).  Ten military women and 11 female chaplains who had been deployed overseas  contributed to the body of knowledge related to the understanding of the emotional and spiritual support needs of wounded female soldiers.  Five key findings appeared in the study: 1) many women did not get the chaplain support they needed; 2) the gender of the chaplain was not significant; 3) the attitude of the chaplain was critical; 4) chaplain skills not found in literature were identified; and, 5) the comprehensive female soldier support model was developed.