Who were the first students of the PA program launched by Eugene Stead?

The first students of the Physician Assistant program launched by Eugene Stead were indeed ex-navy corpsmen. This choice is correct because Eugene Stead created the PA program at Duke University in 1965, primarily to utilize the skills and experiences of former military corpsmen who had extensive medical training during their service. These individuals had already undergone rigorous medical training and were familiar with a range of medical procedures, making them ideal candidates for the PA role as it emerged in the U.S. healthcare system.

While medical students, firemen, and registered nurses have all played roles in the healthcare system and have been important for the PA profession's growth, they were not the original cohort for Stead's program. Medical students were typically focused on becoming physicians rather than PAs, and firemen and registered nurses, while they possessed valuable experience, were not part of the initial group trained specifically for the PA role at the program's inception. The focus on ex-navy corpsmen highlighted a strategic effort to fill the growing need for medical practitioners in a new way, bridging the experience gained in the military with civilian healthcare needs.