Can You Get Physician Assistant Training in the Military?
Can You Get Physician Assistant Training in the Military? The answer is absolutely, yes. The profession of Physician Assistant was actually started as a way of utilizing the skill sets of highly trained military medical corpsmen and medical technicians, also called “medics”, who had no direct counterpart in the civilian world. Often, the military would give very advanced training to corpsmen and medics, allowing them to often be the sole healthcare provider at units in remote locations or at sea.
Military corpsmen and medics served in critical roles on the battlefield, but also on board Navy ships and Coast Guard cutters, and in remote locations with no physicians assigned. These “independent duty” corpsmen and medics underwent intense training that very closely resembled what we now know as Physician Assistant training. These medics and corpsmen were diagnosing illnesses and injuries, triaging wounded service-members, suturing wounds, making casts and splints, and even performing minor, or in extreme cases, major life-saving surgery. Yet, when they returned to civilian life they had no qualification except as possibly a nursing assistant or that of an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT).
After Duke University Medical Center began training Physician Assistants in 1965, the military embraced the concept of Physician Assistant and began to train their own medics and corpsmen more methodically and formally. Today in the military, you can still be a medic or corpsman and receive advanced training to become qualified for “independent duty”, and if you choose, you can apply to become a Physician Assistant and go through formal training to become a certified Physician Assistant. One thing to note: Medics and Corpsmen are enlisted members of the armed forces, but when you complete your training as a Physician Assistant you are commissioned as an officer.
The Army, Navy, Air Force and U.S. Coast Guard all have programs to train and commission Physician Assistants. The U.S. Marine Corps receives its medical service from the Navy, and Navy Corpsmen and Physician Assistants working with the Marines are generally Navy officers. The U.S. Public Health Service also has a commissioned officer corps that includes Physician Assistants.
There are several route to becoming a Physician Assistant in the military. There is inter-service in-house training, conducted by the military at military installations and accredited by national Physician Assistant organizations. There are also various programs where Physician Assistant students that have been accepted to a civilian program apply to become officers, and the military pays for the student’s training. The Coast Guard even has a program where active duty members, including those that are not medics or corpsmen, can apply to attend Physician Assistant training. Each service’s Physician Assistant training and education programs are always being updated, so your best bet would be to get recent information from the respective services. All have recruiting websites with more information.
