Airmen journey into medical field

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Charles Rivezzo
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  When envisioning someone within the military medical profession, your first thought isn't an individual that happens to be a technical expert in air-to-air weapon systems. But that's the type of diversity displayed amongst the ranks of the Air Force's physician assistant community. 

While certainly the road less traveled, this was the journey for Maj. Stephen Vela. For 11 years, Vela served as an Air Force munitions troop, ensuring an array of weapons systems were properly assembled and loaded onto military aircraft.

It wasn't until the then technical sergeant Vela received an e-mail about the Interservice Physician Assistant Program that he decided to pursue his passion in medicine.

PAs are licensed medical providers who can perform an assortment of tasks including diagnosing and treating illness and disease and prescribing medicine for patients under the supervisor of a licensed physician.

"Not too many people are familiar with the role physician assistants play within the medical community, and even fewer know about the opportunities available to service members to become one," Vela said. "There's just not a lot of information out there."

The IPAP mission is to provide the uniformed services with highly competent, compassionate PAs who model integrity, strive for leadership excellence and are committed to lifelong learning. Graduates of the program are commissioned into the officer corps of their respective service and take their place beside other military health care professionals in providing medical services to active duty military personnel, their dependents and retirees.

The program is broken down into two distinct phases - Phase 1 and Phase 2. The first phase of training takes place at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, where students complete their 16-month didactic phase of training, consisting of basic medical science courses intended to develop a student's knowledge of critical medical concepts.

After completing this portion of the curriculum, students continue with their medical clerkships at one of 22 medical Phase 2 sites across the country. This training allows IPAP students to obtain the real-world skills necessary for becoming a PA in the uniformed services.

Today, Vela serves as the director of Phase 2 training at the Air Force's flagship medical facility - David Grant USAF Medical Center. Within his current capacity, he oversees roughly half a dozen students completing their yearlong clerkship.

Staff Sgt. Elissa Beebe is one of the students within the IPAP pipeline at Travis, and is nearing the completion of the program and earning her Air Force commission. After just a year-and-a-half time in service, she came across the program and began working toward her package to apply.

Beebe said that during Phase 1, students endure rigorous academic requirements, taking approximately 24 credits per semester - double the amount considered to be a "full-time" college student.

"We use the doctor model to train our PAs," Vela said. "So the way our doctors are taught when they go through medical school and complete their residences is exactly the way we teach PAs, except we condense it down into a much shorter period of time.

While the program has been around for two decades, it was geared primarily toward the enlisted force as a commissioning program, barring individuals from the Air Force officer corps from applying. That changed in 2014, when the program expanded to include already commissioned officers.

Contemplating separation from the Air Force to attend civilian PA school, Capt. Jennifer Middlebrooks, then an aerospace physiologist, received the annual notice about the IPAP accepting applications. To her surprise, the e-mail contained a new addition - they were now accepting officers into the program.

Middlebrooks is one of the first to go through the program as a previously commissioned Air Force service member, and will be among the first officer graduates this February.

"I loved my job in aerospace physiology," she said. "But a part of me wanted to do more than a training mission. I wanted to study medicine and see patients. Something more clinical focused."

Aside from the commissioning aspect of the program, students also receive several monetary benefits.

Throughout the program, those below the rank of staff sergeant will garner staff sergeant pay as well as continue to receive all military benefits. Members in higher grades will retain their rank. Additionally, upon completion of the program and operating in a licensed capacity, PAs are given an annual bonus, according to Vela.

"It's difficult to find another career that you can do the things that we do and have the opportunities that we have without having a lot more hurdles to jump through," Vela said. "We want people to be aware of what's available to them within this field."

Vela also added that PAs provide a significant amount of continuity to the military medical community.

"Because the PA system was traditionally an enlisted program, we already have time invested in the military so you tend to see more continuity within our field," Vela said.

"Over time, the Air Force has found that PAs are becoming the backbone of our facilities as we are embedded in roughly every medical clinic."

Although many may not be aware of the works PAs accomplish within the military, Vela works to ensure that each day he and his team change that stigma.

"I tell my students on a regular basis, we have to educate people by our actions," Vela said, "one individual at a time."

For more information on becoming a Physician's Assistant or the IPAP, contact Vela at (707) 423-3362.