Return-to-Duty Toolkit: Assessments and Tasks for Determining Military Functional Performance Following Neurosensory Injury

Abstract : One of the most challenging decisions facing military health care providers is if and when a previously wounded warfighter is fit for return to duty (RTD). A variety of assessments is available to decision makers to assist in making informed and accurate determinations of RTD status. The purpose of this Toolkit is to be a reference guide and resource containing currently available assessments for use by healthcare providers who make RTD and fitness-for-[military] duty (FFD) decisions. Depending on the nature of the original injury, the Toolkit is intended to provide a tailorable selection of assessments from which to measure progress toward FFD and from which to make final RTD determinations. While many of the assessments are well known and well validated, others contained in this reference document possess various states of trial and validation. Some of the assessments included here are considered good clinical practice, while others should more appropriately be viewed as clinical options. The Toolkit includes several assessments that were recently developed and are based on military functional tasks.