How Pennsylvania Could Harness Veteran Medics to Strengthen Its Healthcare Workforce
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Asia Tabb
Aired; January 6, 2025
Listen to the podcast to hear the full conversation.
Pennsylvania is facing a looming healthcare workforce shortage, and experts are increasingly looking at an untapped resource: military medics transitioning to civilian life. At a recent forum held at the state Capitol, leaders from multiple states gathered to explore how structured pathways can help military medical personnel seamlessly move into civilian healthcare roles — and what that might mean for the Commonwealth.
Daniel Perkins, founder and principal scientist of the Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness at Penn State, explained why this conversation is especially timely. “We are facing an enormous shortage of healthcare workers in addition to an aging population,” he said. “The demand for healthcare workers will only go up in the state. And yet we are currently unable to fill them with the incoming new workforce.” Perkins noted that thousands of service members enter civilian life each year with significant medical experience, but “even though veteran medics… have already done that,” their battlefield training “doesn’t count for the Commonwealth.” The result, he said, is an unnecessary delay as veterans are forced to restart training rather than build on years of hands-on experience.
Perkins’ organization, an applied research center at Penn State that has studied military-to-civilian transition since 2010, has found this disconnect plays out long after veterans leave service. “For about 20% of veterans, even six and a half years out, they are still struggling with that transition,” he said. Successful transitions, he added, almost always involve employment that gives veterans a renewed sense of identity and fulfillment. “They’ve been able to find barriers that give them a sense of fulfillment,” he explained, and that plays a huge role in long-term well-being.
One of the key challenges, Perkins said, is the lack of a standardized way to convert military medical qualifications into civilian credentials. “For example, Army medics receive a certification… on EMT or emergency medical services,” he said. “That certification is good in 25 different states. The challenge is the experience that medics have far exceeds that certification,” and current systems do not provide a way to assess that proficiency. As a result, veterans may need to redo years of coursework simply because each state handles licensing differently. “Each state has its own licensure requirements,” Perkins said, “and… maybe Department of Health requirements that are separate from the licensor requirements… It makes it really hard.”
The disconnect takes a toll beyond paperwork. Perkins described how the loss of military identity and camaraderie can compound emotional and financial stress for veterans. “Being in the military, you have your mission focused, and you have a community that has a similar mission,” he said. Without clear pathways into civilian roles, many veterans struggle to find that sense of purpose again — even when they have highly relevant skills. He pointed to Pennsylvania’s strong communities and quality of life as potential assets that are being underutilized. “Pennsylvania has great schools for kids. It’s a good place to raise a family,” he said, “and yet we’re not getting veterans to move here.”
Speakers from Kentucky, Wisconsin, and Massachusetts shared models for supporting transitions at the forum. In Massachusetts, programs helped veterans become emergency medical technicians within large healthcare systems, yielding a “massive return on investment,” Perkins said. Kentucky’s model links military experience to credential requirements across multiple roles, not just healthcare. Wisconsin focuses on identifying exactly what additional training a veteran needs to qualify for state healthcare roles. “What jumped out… was the hard work that has to occur around getting stakeholders to sit around the table, roll up their sleeves, start pulling apart the policy and… create reasonable pathways,” he said.
As for why Pennsylvania hasn’t already adopted similar approaches, Perkins said some participants initially questioned the value without large military installations in the state. “Well, you know, we don’t have any large military installations,” he recalled hearing. But others pushed back, emphasizing the need to focus on the Commonwealth’s advantages and plan strategically. “I think we could do this,” one attendee said, “We just need to… understand it’s probably a three to five year effort.”
Perkins said that the forum’s discussions reflect a growing recognition that veterans are an asset — not just for Pennsylvania’s healthcare workforce needs, but for the social and economic fabric of the state. The challenge now, he said, is turning that recognition into coordinated action that makes the transition from military medic to civilian healthcare professional both achievable and efficient.
