A Vietnam veteran returned home after two years as a combat medic. He’d treated gunshot wounds, performed emergency procedures and saved lives under fire. Civilian hospitals wouldn’t hire him. His military training didn’t translate to any civilian medical credential. He ended up pumping gas at a service station.
This waste of medical talent happened thousands of times as Vietnam veterans came home in the 1960s. The problem caught the attention of Dr. Eugene Stead at Duke University Medical Center. He saw highly skilled medics and corpsmen unable to apply their training in civilian medicine. At the same time, the nation faced a severe shortage of primary care physicians.
Stead’s solution created an entirely new medical profession.
The First Class
In 1965, Stead launched the first physician assistant program at Duke University. The initial class consisted of four former Navy corpsmen. Three completed the two-year program and graduated Oct. 6, 1967. Kenneth Ferrell, Victor Germino and Richard Scheele became the first physician assistants in American medicine.
The date matters. National PA Week is celebrated annually from Oct. 6 to 12 because Oct. 6 marks both the first graduation and Stead’s birthday.
Stead built the curriculum around clinical training rather than traditional didactic education. He’d watched military medics develop exceptional skills through hands-on experience. His program expanded that foundation with supervised medical practice. Students learned by doing, not just studying.
Read More: The Vietnam Veterans Who Fought for Modern PTSD Treatments
Why Military Medicine
Combat medics and Navy corpsmen operated independently in the field. They triaged casualties, stabilized trauma patients, managed pain and made critical medical decisions with minimal supervision. Many had more practical experience treating emergencies than civilian medical students.
Special Forces medics trained to operate completely autonomously, supporting small teams in remote locations. They performed minor surgeries, managed infectious diseases and handled everything from dental emergencies to childbirth. This level of independent practice impressed Stead and influenced his vision for physician assistants.
The problem was that none of this training counted in civilian health care. Medics who’d saved lives couldn’t get jobs as orderlies. Corpsmen with years of emergency medicine experience couldn’t work in hospitals without starting over completely.
Stead recognized that these veterans already possessed the clinical skills and decision-making ability needed in medicine. They just needed formal education to bridge military experience to civilian health care.
The Spread
Other universities noticed Duke’s success. Dr. Richard Smith at the University of Washington launched the MEDEX Northwest program in 1969, also targeting veterans with medical training. The name MEDEX came from the French “medecin extension,” meaning physician extender.
The military created its own PA programs. The Army launched its Physician Assistant Course at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, in 1971. Vietnam veteran and former combat medic Louis Rocco was part of that first class. The services eventually consolidated training into the Interservice Physician Assistant Program.
A 1971 Life magazine advertisement showed a young African-American veteran with the caption, “We want to put this man in the hospital.” The text explained that he’d spent two years as a Vietnam medic saving lives on the battlefield. Now he was pumping gas, wasting his training. The ad promoted PA programs as the solution.
The Legacy
Today more than 178,000 physician assistants practice in the United States. They work in every medical specialty, from emergency medicine to surgery to primary care. The profession consistently ranks among the best jobs in America for salary, growth and job satisfaction.
Vietnam veterans laid the foundation, refusing to accept that their medical skills had no value in civilian life. Stead and other physicians saw that waste and created a new profession to harness it.
Every PA practicing today owes the profession’s existence to combat medics and Navy corpsmen who proved that medical expertise doesn’t require a medical degree.
Read More: December 1944: The Medics Who Saved Thousands at the Battle of the Bulge
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