Direct Commission to Navy from PA school

[EMT2PAC]

Hello,

I am a currently a PA student graduating in August and sitting for my boards in September, based out of FL. No prior military experience and history as a licensed Florida EMT-B, ED tech, and over 1000 clinical hours as of now and GPA of 3.4.

I am currently applying to the Navy for direct commission (DC) withing 6 months of graduation from school and was wondering if anyone has done DC to the navy (and if so what helped you be a good candidate), life as a navy PA-C, what to expect, specialties I can expect to be able to work in, and just any general info. I have a good recruiter but you never know and I hear a lot of good and bad.

[hmtopa28]

Hello,

I talked to a Navy recruiter and he said that Navy requires at least 6 months of employment prior to direct commissioning. Would you mind giving me your recruiter contact so I can ask him some questions? Thank you

russ

[EMT2PAC]

To answer your question every recruiter is in the same spot right now concerning PAs direct commission and Docs to I guess. Heard horror stories. 

It is a mess right now the officer running it is saying he doesn't want any students because "they wont touch a patient for months" which makes no sense because why would a person sit around for 6-8 months doing nothing when loans are sitting there accruing; and the credentialing service within the Navy is saying no to him and to still apply so again HUGE MESS. Dont understand why the Navy advertises these things and then one man just blocks it all. 

[jmedic12]

I am a LT in The Navy and direct commissioned right after PA school. I was one of only two that were selected for DC as a PA in 2017. It’s very competitive and there’s usually only 2-3 selected each year. I was prior enlisted in the Army as a flight medic which likely helped. If you have any specific questions you can PM me and I’ll do my best to answer.

[ssammyy]

On 10/4/2019 at 7:05 AM, jmedic12 said:

I am a LT in The Navy and direct commissioned right after PA school. I was one of only two that were selected for DC as a PA in 2017. It’s very competitive and there’s usually only 2-3 selected each year. I was prior enlisted in the Army as a flight medic which likely helped. If you have any specific questions you can PM me and I’ll do my best to answer.

Do you happen to know how many DC they've taken 2018, 2019, 2020 for PAs? Or if it's trending up or down perhaps?

[moleashish]

I'm interested to know about this as well. Because from what I hear Navy didn't have DC for PAs the last few years. Everyone that have talked to the Medical Recruiters have been told that they are looking for PAs with minimum 2 years experience for DC. Definitely not straight from school. 

Any insight would be appreciated as I have two friends who are looking to get in.

[jmedic12]

I can’t speak on what info recruiters are putting out or it’s accuracy. The trend I’ve seen is usually 1-4 DC positions budgeted per year with average of 1-2 actually commissioned. I am prior service and had 5 years as Fire/Paramedic and 10 years Flight Medic prior to becoming PA. I may be an outlier as I was able to get full time high paying EM job straight out of school as well as DC straight out of school. I don’t know if its just really uncommon but I do know it is possible to receive a DC (if your a desired and competitive applicant) straight from school. Hopefully this helps.

LT Cohran PA-C, USN

[Willc]

10 hours ago, jmedic12 said:

I can’t speak on what info recruiters are putting out or it’s accuracy. The trend I’ve seen is usually 1-4 DC positions budgeted per year with average of 1-2 actually commissioned. I am prior service and had 5 years as Fire/Paramedic and 10 years Flight Medic prior to becoming PA. I may be an outlier as I was able to get full time high paying EM job straight out of school as well as DC straight out of school. I don’t know if its just really uncommon but I do know it is possible to receive a DC (if your a desired and competitive applicant) straight from school. Hopefully this helps.

Just out of curiosity. What was your deciding factor to go back into the military? I assume you had undergrad paid for by GI Bill and maybe some of your PA program. I would assume your school debt was lower than many others, and you had a good paying civilian job. So what was your desire for military? Was it just that you enjoyed the military, or debt repayment?

[moleashish]

On 6/2/2020 at 12:20 AM, jmedic12 said:

I can’t speak on what info recruiters are putting out or it’s accuracy. The trend I’ve seen is usually 1-4 DC positions budgeted per year with average of 1-2 actually commissioned. I am prior service and had 5 years as Fire/Paramedic and 10 years Flight Medic prior to becoming PA. I may be an outlier as I was able to get full time high paying EM job straight out of school as well as DC straight out of school. I don’t know if its just really uncommon but I do know it is possible to receive a DC (if your a desired and competitive applicant) straight from school. Hopefully this helps.

LT Cohran PA-C, USN

Thank you for this info. It is definitely hard to find out about this. So far two of my friends who have inquired about this have been told to apply after they get 2 years experience as a PA. One of them was a Navy corpsman for couple years before he got out and went to PA school.