Pride in Serving

“I took a lot of pride in being a medic in the Army and I wanted to do something similar to that getting out of the military.”

For a decade, Rick Cowan served as an Army medic — both in the line of fire and at combat support hospitals in Iraq — conducting life-saving and essential medical care to more than 1,000 battlefield causalities.

But when he returned to civilian life in 2013, he found his options were limited. He was qualified only to be an EMT basic or nurse’s aide despite his years of training and experience. So he turned to Carolina’s Physician Assistant Studies program, where he became a member of the program’s inaugural class in 2015.

Read the complete Carolina Story from UNC Health Care…

This is story number 132 in the Carolina Stories 225th Anniversary Edition magazine.

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