AEROMEDICAL TECHS TIRED OF OVERTASKING
By Jennifer Palmer  Times Staff Writer

Staff Sgt. Michael Petz is bored with his job as an aeromedical technician.

He pushes too many papers and has too many tasks that are not related to treating patients. The job just isn't what the Air Force promised it would be.

"Most people have an idea of what it's going to be like, but you get to the job and realize that you're just sitting behind a desk," said the noncommissioned officer in charge of flight medicine at the 56th Aerospace Medicine Squad-ron at Luke Air Force Base, Ariz.

"The taskings that are given to our career field need to be spread a lot more throughout the hospital," he added. "We're getting dumped on."

Like many others in his field, Petz is planning a career change. He wants to apply to medical school after he completes his bachelor's degree.

One senior-ranking medical official said the Air Force's aeromedical field is "schizophrenic" because it has so many duties.

Aeromedical technicians help doctors take care of fliers and special operations personnel and families. But they also oversee health standards for the entire service population by performing such things as weight, hearing and sight tests on members.

Now, a new preventative-health assessment program is further strapping aeromedical resources and driving away technicians.

Eighteen months ago, the Air Force began requiring technicians to perform annual physicals on all service members. Technicians say it's a good program but the career field does not have enough people to support it.

"The career field has had a hard time letting go of old things we do," said Senior Airman Gary Alexander, aeromedical journeyman from the 89th Aeromedical Squadron at Andrews Air Force Base, Md.

For example, separating or retiring service members need physicals before they leave, even if they recently had an annual physical, Alexander said.

Work overload

Aeromedical technicians often cite work overload and manning shortages as reasons for leaving the Air Force or transferring into another medical career field.

Staffing numbers prove they may have a point: Aeromedical manning levels have fallen since 1995, even though authorizations have increased slightly.

In 1995, 101 percent of the 980 authorized slots were filled. Today, only 84 percent of 10,005 slots are filled.

The numbers look worse when they are broken down by rank.

The career field has a severe problem in its junior ranks. Senior airman slots are manned at 59 percent, while staff sergeant slots are manned at 89 percent, said Chief Master Sgt. Stephen Smiley, aeromedical career field manager at the service's School of Aerospace Medicine at Brooks Air Force Base, Texas.

Col. (Dr.) Jim Laub said the aeromedical retention numbers are not that different for manning levels in other medical technician fields. The medical drawdown, he said, is impacting everyone.

"We can get the job done now, but we have to work people too hard," said Laub, chief of the aerospace medicine division at the surgeon general's office at Bolling Air Force Base, Washington, D.C.

Smiley said he hopes additional pay will persuade more technicians to stay in.

Re-enlistment bonuses

Selective re-enlistment bonuses are offered using a complicated formula that includes zones -- Zone A is for airmen re-enlisting after less than six years of service; Zone B is for those with six to 10 years of service -- and a multiplier, which is a variable factor ranging from 0.5 to 4 points.

The larger the multiplier, the more money -- and the harder the Air Force is trying to keep those people.

Aeromedical bonuses increased last January by half a point to 11/2 points for Zone A and one point for Zone B.

But additional money is not the answer, according to Senior Airman Peter Costello, an aeromedical journeyman with Andrews' 89th squadron.

"I have no intentions of enlisting again, with or without the SRB," he said. "You're so overworked, and money is not the answer."

Aeromedical technicians can make a lot more money in the civilian world, Costello said. They can work as certified emergency medical technicians on ambulances or as patient technicians at hospitals and clinics. Costello said he has a friend who makes $12 an hour as a part-time technician at a doctor's office.

Another common complaint is that the technician job is not exciting.

In tech school, students learn hands-on wartime duties such as suturing and bandaging. They train to be first-responders to disasters, and they learn how to augment search-and-rescue teams.

But in the real world, these skills are rarely used. Technicians often are bogged down with administrative tasks such as checking patients in at doctors' offices and developing flight-safety briefings.

Airman 1st Class Natasha Richard said she plans to leave the service in two years because performing physical exams and standards tests is not enough of a challenge. "If there was more on the operational side of things, more training and more of what I learned in tech school, then maybe I would stay," said Richard, an aeromedical apprentice with the 56th Aeromedical Squadron at Luke.

Copyright 1998 Army Times Publishing Co.
updated March 1, 1998