Veterans as physician assistants

The physician assistant (PA) profession emerged nearly 50 years ago to leverage the healthcare experience of Vietnam-era military trained medics and corpsmen to fill workforce shortages in medical care. In 2009, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Primary Care Training and Enhancement program was established to improve access to primary care. Training military veterans as PAs was again identified as a strategy to meet provider access shortages. However, fewer than 4% of veterans with military healthcare training are likely to apply to PA school and little is known regarding the factors that predict acceptance to training. In 2012, we surveyed all veteran applicants and a stratified random sample of nonveterans applying to PA training. We compare the similarities and differences between veteran and nonveteran applicants, application barriers, and the factors predicting acceptance. We conclude with a discussion of the link between modern veterans and the PA profession.