My daily routine is anything but routine.
In the morning I usually will see patients and I never know
what's going to walk through the door, whether it
be someone who's suffering from heat exhaustion,
someone with the sniffles, chest pain it's different every day.
I'm Petty Officer Second Class Ashley Wagner, Hospital Corpsman
in the United States Navy.
I joined the Navy because I was really interested in traveling.
I knew that the Navy had great opportunities for seeing the
world and I also was very interested in getting my college
education paid for and I knew that they would cover that.
A hospital corpsman in the Navy basically is patient care.
We see the patients when they come in which are generally
active duty or reservists military and we get their initial
interview. They tell us what's wrong with them, we take notes,
we ask all the medical questions that are pertinent that we
know the doctor is going to - going to want to know the answer to.
And once we interview the patient we go and brief the doctor and
he or she will come in and see the patient and give them the
diagnosis and treatment.
To someone who wanted to be a hospital corpsman there are so
many different paths that you can take. You'll be able to go
to a hospital or work in any other clinic and then you can
choose what specialty you'd like to work in and the Navy
will send you to a school. Say you wanted to be a lab tech
then they would send you to lab technician school.
You would specialize in that. And then you would be able to
go and work in a hospital.
It's rewarding but it's very challenging. I definitely
enjoy patient care and not knowing what you're going to
get in your office constantly keeps you on your toes.
So, staying in the books is definitely a challenge.
I learned about diving medical technician, which basically is
working in the medical field and in the diving community and
it was great for me because I always had an interest in
medicine and in diving.
As a diving med tech I learned how to use a hyperbaric
chamber and how to re-compress a diver.
My plan for the future is to continue working as a diving med tech.
I'd love to be a physician's assistant or some type of doctor myself.
The Navy has been paying for 100 percent of my school thus far
so I plan on continuing to take advantage of that opportunity.
My advice to someone pursuing a career as an HM in the Navy
would be to definitely have an interest in helping people.
You're going to be working a lot with sick and injured
people and it's good to go into that having that compassion
that you want to help this person get better.
It's an adventure every day I go to work I never
know what - what I'm going to get tasked to do and I love it.
It's awesome.