Thread: 18D to BSN!
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Old 09-14-2016, 23:51   #10
Ibn Ibrahim
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Join Date: May 2015
Location: Clarksville, TN.
Posts: 1
NurseTim, 18D's are definitely not PA's on steroids. I have done several rounds of proficiency training in CONUS and on several deployments where I was fortunate to have a PA from Group, big army, or elsewhere to work under, either in clinical or combat settings. PA's are higher-level providers than 18D's. Besides the difference in schooling, which is that PA's go through a two-year intensive medical school compared to the 1-year SF medic course, here's the difference: PA's are responsible for one thing, and that's being a PA. An 18D is a medic, but he's also a team guy, which entails being responsible for a huge amount of other things, such as shoot/move/communicate, foreign language, maintaining proficiency on advanced skills, etc, etc, etc. We have PA's at the BN level who conduct training for us, coordinate proficiency training, are the subject matter experts for clinical medicine, and thereby act along with the BN Doc as a resource for 18D's to rely on.
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