I want to thank all of you at the Foxhole
for your kind words and good works.
Raymond St. Jacques portrays a Combat Medic pictured with John Wayne in 1968 movie "Green Beret"
Our Physician Assistant / Associate profession owes its formation to a physician in NC who found that he was able to train a young man who worked in his office to do many of the less complex tasks that he performed as a physician. Several NC physicians expanded on this idea. They proposed utilizing the same fast track model that prepared physicians for deployment in World War II.
Duke University felt that this new physician assistant concept could help alleviate the increasing shortage of primary care physicians in rural areas. The nursing profession, who had no interest in developing this idea, turned them down. They decided then that an even better candidate would be corpsmen or medics who were being used in the Viet Nam war. Duke proved that they were able to successfully train these individuals using the WW II fast track model and the PA profession was born.
Physician Associate /Assistant World
Combat Medic Qualification Badge
