VA Program Allows Former Corpsmen/Medics to Learn & Care for Veterans

What are your thoughts? The VA has been slowly been working on a program called the Intermediate Care Technician (ICT) program. It started in 2012 in 15 locations, in 2014 it spread a little larger... this next wave is going even larger. No dates yet. But this makes me excited for the VA's future.

I think that the VA is taking a step in the right direction in reaching out for the Medics and Corpsmen out there who are leaving the service over qualified for so many civilian jobs, but under certified. These men and women have already signed up to serve and care for veterans and SM. Why not (if they are willing) continue that mission.

http://www.veteranshired.org/home/2012/08/opportunity-for-former-medics-med-techs-and-corpsmen/

Program Allows Former Corpsmen, Medics to Learn, Care for Veterans
When he got out of the service in 2012 after four combat tours, Joe Carney didn’t have much trouble finding work, but the jobs available to him paled in comparison to the life-saving duties he had as an Army medic.
“I was over-qualified for basic health-tech stuff,” said Carney, who today works in the emergency room at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center (FHCC) in North Chicago. “I was told by four or five hospitals I was overqualified.” At the same time, he didn’t have the credentials for jobs such as physician assistant or nurse practitioner. Carney decided to continue with the sports medicine college classes he began while he was still in the Army, and at the same time pursued getting into a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) program he heard about before he was discharged.

The Intermediate Care Technician (ICT) program was piloted at 15 VA medical centers in 2012 in and is now being implemented nationally. The goal was to hire former military members who served as Army medics, Air Force medical technicians, and Navy and Coast Guard hospital corpsmen and help them capitalize on their valuable experience and continue working and progressing in the medical field. A job as an ICT at Lovell FHCC was a good fit for Carney, who received his sports medicine degree in 2014 and continued with more college classes. Today he is close to completing the pre-requisites to enter the physician assistant (PA) program at Rosalind Franklin University Chicago Medical School.

Caring for Veterans and servicemen and women and their families made his transition to civilian life easier, Carney said. Additionally, Carney believes his ICT job at Lovell FHCC has positioned him well to become a PA. “I work with all the doctors and nurses, and there’s a huge emphasis on learning; I learn new things every day,” he said. Carney has a preceptor in the emergency room, Dr. Michael Bellino, who acts as a teacher and mentor. “He teaches me a lot,” Carney said. “I almost get treated as a PA now. I get introduced to patients as ‘Here’s Joe, a future PA.’”

Bellino said former corpsmen and medics have the training and experience equivalent to a second-year medical resident, and the ICT program recognizes that fact. “Former corpsmen and military medics don’t fit in when they get out of the service,” Bellino said. “The outside world doesn’t have a job that keeps up their unique and advanced skills and pays well enough, so they end up stepping down. “This is a perfect thing to enhance the skillset they gained in combat, or in the service, so they can go into a PA program, or become a doctor,” Bellino said. In combat, “death was everywhere,” Carney said. “There were lots of firefights, lots of casualties, and we were dealing with significant loss of life.” Carney, himself, was injured, both physically and mentally. “I still struggle with a lot of it. I’m a disabled Vet for a reason.”

A typical day then could find Carney helping to save the lives of service members injured on the battlefield, as well as providing medical care to the children of local nationals.
In the FHCC’s emergency room on a typical day, Carney can be found performing any number of tasks, including draining and suturing wounds, starting IVs and inserting catheters, conducting medical exams and doing electrocardiograms. “He’s an absolutely invaluable member of the staff,” said Dr. Jeffrey Dubnow, head of the Lovell FHCC ER. “He’s qualified to do many things, which is a great help to the doctors. We’re very happy with him.” Carney is the FHCC’s only ICT. Two others who started with the pilot program have moved on to other opportunities. Bellino and Dubnow hope the ICT program will continue and potentially develop into a training program for PAs and/or doctors.

“We need more ICTs,” Bellino said. “There will be a shortage of physicians in the future … We have this pool of qualified Veterans out there ... With this program, we have the next providers for the VA system.”


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