pa's in the us phs

[deleted6669]

can anyone comment on life as a pa in the usphs?
I recently spoke with someone at the phs who thought I could get a direct commission as an 0-4 and am thinking about it.
how often do you need to relocate?
does the service make allowances for those with young kids in school, etc
can you stay in clinical medicine or are folks often forced into administrative positions?
thanks

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[montessori2md]

http://www.coausphs.org/

Emed, I would look here for folks in the areas you're interested in and contact them directly. I had good luck getting info when I was looking at COSTEP, they were very helpful.

In general, what I know is that if you want more $$$, at some point that means wanting higher rank, which means jumping through the hoops your CO wants you to jump through -that can include admin duties and/or relocation, though probably not any more frequently than every 2 years. I don't know of forced relocation other than in circumstances where the job was eliminated, and there wasn't anything else in the area, but I suppose it's possible. Unless your rank were very high, you would probably stay within your region, so if it were an issue of being near the grandparents, etc, that's probably going to happen. Turning down offers of positions requiring relocation is usually possible, and can result in being passed over when it's time to choose who gets promoted.

Obviously PHS officers regularly "deploy" for US needs, like Katrina. I'm guessing you'd be interested in being part of the emergency responders : )

 

[deleted6669]

thanks...will look at that....