Military medic as HCE for civilian schools

[mickey008]

Hi , I am a military medic with army special operations .. I am getting ready to apply to Civilian PA schools .. My question is how do I show my medic duties as healthcare hours Is there a form which shows that .. Like a DA form or something ? I work for a primary care Doc will he be able to write a memo stating my duties ? Also are there any specific schools I should apply to ? I have a B.S. biotechnology and doing my anatomy and physiology per Reqs and applying for the class starting in 2014 . Any help will be very much appreciated ! Thanks

[LT_Oneal_PAC]

South college in TN is very pro-vet. Can't answer your other questions.

[mickey008]

Thanks ! That helps a bit , anyone else who was a prior military medic ?

[LT_Oneal_PAC]

At south? 2 corpsman and 1 medic, just in my class.

[mickey008]

Awesome will surely apply there ! thanks

[Boatswain2PA]

Just get a memo/letter from your CO or First Sarg saying you were a full time medic from this date to that date.

 

This is also a way to get a "free" letter of recommendation (in addition to the ones to Caspa). Have him write about all of the great things you did as a medic.

 

Best of luck. But remember, you are entering "academia" where most people have little knowledge of military strengths/sacrifice, and are often hostile to the culture.

[mickey008]

By hostile .. Do you mean they don't think we are competent enough or just in general think we are better than them .. And know more ! Hence the hostility .. Just a snapshot .. In 4 years I have worked directly for a BN surgeon .. I do sick call everyday .. Give out meds and almost independently treat my soldiers .. I do history and physical exams .. "Assist in procedures from vas to I & D .. I guess what I am saying is that as a medic I have done a lot .. Will it intimidate the selection committee .. Thinking Tht I have developed bad habits ?

[Super Duper]

deleted because it was a duplicate post

[Super Duper]

But remember, you are entering "academia" where most people have little knowledge of military strengths/sacrifice, and are often hostile to the culture.

 

Not at all my experience. Of course, I am quite charming :heheh:

[jsfelder0417]

Hey Mickey, I am a former 68W2P. I applied to PA school on my last year of active duty and was accepted. I ETS'd in April and started PA school in the Fall. When I filled out the CASPA application I just put the civilian equivalent full time hours (2000) for every year of duty as a medic, and then used the civilian equivalent for my non-medic duties i.e. NCOIC of Physical Therapy was the Assistant Manager of Physical Therapy. Using the civilian equivalent terms I had no confusion in my application. I applied to rural and military friendly (i.e. MEDEX) programs in the western US and encountered zero hostility. The University of Washington/MEDEX NW is a very good school that specifically recruits medics. I ended up choosing Idaho State University though, because of the rural focus, proximity to family, wife's acceptance to BSU, and ISU giving me resident tuition because I moved to Boise immediately after ETSing. I don't regret the decision to go to PA school one bit. If you have any questions, feel free to ask or PM me. Best of luck. -Joe

[HJK]

Prior medic myself. Always help to get a letter of recommendations from CO or others, but details of HCE were not discussed. Just stating your are or were in military as medic was enough to show your experience. Having a copy of dd214 just in case and ready to talk in details when asked during interviews. Good luck!!

[Will352ns]

Just put your estimated hours of experience on the CASPA app and describe what you did accordingly. Nobody asked me to verify anything as my AFSC (MOS) is medical in nature. Define special operations? If you are an 18D, then describe the in garrison work you did...sounds like you did the battalion med gig for a bit...that is golden. If you did some HA stuff, describe that. Of course, you can go into anything you did during DA's.

 

If you are CA, you should easily be able to fill the space with stuff with either battalion med or HA missions.

 

During my interviews, every ADCOM was happy with my military experience. They liked it.

 

Good luck.

[mickey008]

Thanks for the advice everyone , will let you know what happens and maybe a few more questions , i am just starting out .

[trout]

I second the recommendation for U of Washington. When I was there over 1/3 of the class was prior military. Very positive envionment for vets. Nothing special required for the HCE on the appication- just fill in estimated hours (2000/yr avg).

[Just Steve]

I was a Navy Corpsman for 10 years and counted 20,000 hours towards HCE. I applied/got accepted to MEDEX without any issues or special notes. I also tacked on an additional 25,000 hrs i spent as a parameic after the military...no one blinked or asked for verification. MEDEX/UW had one of the highest number of Vets in their program year after year. They are opening their fifth campus in Tacoma, in conjunction with Ft. Lewis McCord. You will be hard pressed to find a more military friendly program in the nation. Their class is typically about 33% Vet.

 

As a result of that, most of the classmates have very similar sense of humor, breadth of experience, thick skin, and type A personality. Sure, there are some people that won't "get" you, but they are in the vast minority. Just don't roll in and be a schmuck.

[CAdamsPAC]

Hi , I am a military medic with army special operations .. I am getting ready to apply to Civilian PA schools .. My question is how do I show my medic duties as healthcare hours Is there a form which shows that .. Like a DA form or something ? I work for a primary care Doc will he be able to write a memo stating my duties ? Also are there any specific schools I should apply to ? I have a B.S. biotechnology and doing my anatomy and physiology per Reqs and applying for the class starting in 2014 . Any help will be very much appreciated ! Thanks

 

Military HCE especially manuver unit care is golden in my mind and you should present your HCE in terms of years along with specific examples of the clinical duties performed in each assignment. Letters from your supervising MD and PA citing your performance of these duties and potential to be successful as a PA,would be icing on the cake

[Boatswain2PA]

By hostile .. Do you mean they don't think we are competent enough or just in general think we are better than them .. And know more ! Hence the hostility .. Just a snapshot ..

 

No, I've just found "academia" to be incredibly liberal, and liberals generally have a poor opinion of military personnel. I would suggest PA programs have historically been mostly insulated from the "academic culture" which breeds such contempt among universities. But now that PA programs are masters level and generally require some level of "research", they are becoming more entwined with their academic university, and I see some of that culture crossing over.

 

Military culture and academic culture are just totally different. The culture of individual PA programs can probably lie anywhere between the two.

[mickey008]

I checked th MEDEX website and it says that they don't have an anatomy lab .. Anyone know about that .. They say anatomy is done online . ..is it okay for PA to not have an antomy lab ? Just wondering !

[beattie228]

As stated above, I listed my HCE hours from my experiences as a 68W20 as 2000 hours per year of enlistment. I felt that was a good representation of my hands on patient care because surely some of those hours were spent doing some of the Army foolishness, while others were spent on 2 and 3 day missions in the Middle East where I was the only medical personnel on site and couldn't keep my aid bags and CLS guys stocked. For each of my PA school interviews, proper documentation of my Army HCE hours was never brought up nor was it an issue. Your DD220 will be more than enough documentation for you, and your narrative is where you will be afforded the opportunity to showcase your military experiences to the admissions committee. Fortunately for you, the PA profession started with a group of medics returning home from combat with the experiences necessary to transition to outstanding professional clinicians, so the PA forefathers helped pave the way for us military folks. Every program I've had an encounter with spoke very highly of my military experiences and recognized the outstanding training and opportunities I had while in uniform. Certainly keep the University of Washington-MEDEX program in your radar because of their great reputation and strong veteran presence, but you stand to make yourself a very competitive candidate for just about any program in the country pending some other variables (GPA, GRE scores if applicable, etc). Shoot me a message if I can be of any help to you, and thanks for your service to this great country of ours!

[JohnConner]

There's a link about halfway down the page that lists programs that either giver grants or preference to veterans: http://www.paeaonline.org/index.php?ht=d/sp/i/132462/pid/132462

 

Hope that helps.

[Just Steve]

I checked th MEDEX website and it says that they don't have an anatomy lab .. Anyone know about that .. They say anatomy is done online . ..is it okay for PA to not have an antomy lab ? Just wondering !

MEDEX has a strong preference that your A&P pre req is five or less years old when you apply. The online portion is 14 weeks long and you will find yourself reading just about every page of the book.

 

I am into the clinical year now and don't feel that my A&P is lacking. I haven't done my surgery rotation yet and I expect to dust off the book during that month but other than that,,,we really don't need to know every last millimeter of tissue in the human body.

[d2305]

Basic Job Description

The special operations medical sergeant employs conventional and unconventional warfare tactics and techniques in providing medical care and treatment.

Duties performed by Soldiers in this MOS include:

Performs and maintains proficiency in all Major Duties- Ensures detachment medical preparation and maintains medical equipment and supplies, provides examination and care to detachment members and establishes temporary, fixed and unconventional warfare medical facilities to support operations with emergency, routine, and long term medical care. Provides initial medical screening and evaluation of allied and indigenous personnel. Manages detachment, allied, or indigenous patient's, administration, admission and discharge, care, laboratory and pharmacological requirements and the initiation, maintenance and transfer of records. Orders, stores, catalogs, safeguards and distributes medical supplies, equipment and pharmaceutical. Supervises medical care and treatment during split detachment missions. Operates a combat laboratory and treats emergency and trauma patients in accordance with established surgical principles. Diagnoses and treats various medical dermatological, pediatric, infectious and obstetric conditions using appropriate medications, intravenous fluid support and physical measures. Develops and provides medical intelligence as required.

Note: You cannot enlist with a guarantee for this MOS. New recruits interested in Special Forces may enlist under the 18X, Special Forces Enlistment Option. They then attend Infantry OSUT (basic training and infantry training in one course), and their Special Forces MOS (18B - Special Operations Weapons Sergeant,18C - Special Operations Engineer, 18D - Special Operations Medical Sergeant, or 18E - Special Operations Communications Sergeant) is determined during the Special Forces Assessment and Selection portion of their training, based on their interests, qualifications, and the "needs of the Army."

Training Information

 

• 3 weeks of Airborne (parachute) Training at Fort Benning, GA
  
• 4 weeks at the Special Operations Preparation Course (SOPC) at McKenna MOUT Site, Fort Benning, GA.
  
• 30 days of Special Forces Assessment and Selection (SFAS), Fort Benning, GA.
  
• 40 days, Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC), Phase I, Individual Skills Phase, Camp Rowe Training Facility.
  
• 57 weeks, Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC), Phase 2, MOS Qualification Phase, Fort Bragg, NC
  
• 38 days, Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC), Phase 3, Collective Training Phase, (location unknown)
  
• 4 to 6 months (depending on language), Special Forces Language School, Fort Bragg, SC.
  

Note: The Special Forces training pipeline is inarguably the toughest training program in the Army, and has a very high wash-out rate. Soldiers who are retraining into Special Forces, who fail any of the above training courses, revert to their primary MOS (job). New recruits, who enlist under the 18X Special Forces Enlistment Program, who fail to complete any of the above training courses, are reassigned as 11B, Infantryman.

ASVAB Score Required: 110 in aptitude area GT, and 100 in aptitude area CO

Security Clearance: Secret

Strength Requirement: No Standard Set

.

 

If you got an army achievement/commendation medal, the write up should be good bullets of what you did.

[mickey008]

That sure will help put everything in prospective .. Thanks for an amazing explanation !

[mjjohnson1224]

I go to Philadelphia University. It's a very small school - about 3,000 undergrad students and maybe around 2,000 graduate students. I can't speak for the HCE transferring or the PA program itself because I am pre-PA in the linked 5-year BS/MS PA Studies, so I'm still working on my undergrad. However, in reference to being a vet here, I would suggest applying here as well. The director of the PA program is a former Air Force Medic and while I'm the only vet in my class (first year of the 5 year program), there are other vets in the other years of the program - 1 Marine (myself), 2 Navy Corpsman, 1 Air Force Medic, 1 Army Paratrooper, and 1 Coastie (although I believe he just switched to OT). There are a few other vets on campus - staff (including within the PA program) and in other majors as well.

 

I know of a few of my classmates that are considering/want to go into the service after graduating as PAs. I haven't had any problems here with being a vet on campus.

 

..just my .02 on the school/being a vet here.

[roger777]

No, I've just found "academia" to be incredibly liberal, and liberals generally have a poor opinion of military personnel. I would suggest PA programs have historically been mostly insulated from the "academic culture" which breeds such contempt among universities. But now that PA programs are masters level and generally require some level of "research", they are becoming more entwined with their academic university, and I see some of that culture crossing over.

 

--I have spent a great deal of time in both the academic and military setting and IMO this is pure speculation. I have interacted closely with many liberal academics and almost all had a an obvious respect for my military service. My discussions with them often included discussion of politics along with a wide range of other topics and I never saw a hint of this. IMO liberal academics view military personnel as upright, working-class people who have a broad life experience. Most intelligent, educated people have a nuanced-enough worldview that disagreements with government policies and actions that involve the military don't color their opinions about the forces themselves (Ie an understanding that the military doesn't make policy). I think military service, especially in a medical capacity is anything but a liability in this process.