Master Warrant Officer Brent Conway has a cool, little-known job in the Canadian Armed Forces, and he was very eager to talk about it during a “career fair” of military health services trades that visited 14 Wing Greenwood March 30.
Conway is an aviation physiology technician – one of just 12 currently working across the forces: there are another 12 vacancies.
The “red” classification of Conway’s trade, and over a dozen others under the Canadian Forces Health Services umbrella, is behind the cross-country effort by Lieutenant-Commander Wendy Goulet and her team. Goulet is CFHS’ staff officer attractions, working from Ottawa with her office to recruit health services personnel. They help civilians looking to start a military health career, and promote occupational transfer opportunities for currently serving members.
“We’re just trying to educate people about what’s there,” Goulet said. “We have deficiencies in the forces’ medical trades – but so does the world. We offer lots of opportunity and specialties, which helps with our recruiting and retention.”
Conway’s experience follows that exact path: he joined the military as a medical technician but, 14 years ago, he found out about the Av Phys Tech trade.
“You won’t see it on forces.ca, as you have to come from a med tech background or one of a few Royal Canadian Air Force positions (including flight engineer, aviation and avionics systems, airborne electronic sensor operator and several other trades) – that’s why we were interested in coming to Greenwood,” Conway says.
Av Phys Techs work with the “human factors of flight,” Conway says, training, testing and recertifying aircrew members through ejection forces, anti-gravity, centrifugal forces, decompression and hypobaric conditions, spatial disorientation, hypoxia and more.
“The job’s been around since the Second World War, but we’ve changed a lot and evolved over time. It used to be a sub-block of the med tech trade. Now, us and bioscience officers – we’re in health services, but not a typical health services trade.
“This is very interesting work, with lots of instructing and out of my comfort zone – it builds your confidence.”
Plus, trades training is currently three months in Ohio, alongside American military equivalent personnel, with equipment including a human centrifuge, decompression and hypobaric chambers and virtual reality simulators. And – there is specialist pay for these in-demand techs.
Goulet says there is spec pay for a number of the health services trades they are promoting, and the advantages of working in the military health environment: limited shift work, education and training, work opportunities in civilian facilities, military sports, rank and pay advancements, travel – and more.
If you would like to learn about CFHS occupations available for in-service or civilian selection, contact the Health Services Attractions Team at CFHSAttractionCell-CelluledattractionSSFC@forces.gc.ca
Health services opportunities include:
bioscience officer
dental officer
health services management officer
medical officer
medical specialist officer
nursing officer
pharmacy officer
physician assistant
physiotherapy officer
social work officer
aviation physiology technician
biomedical electronics technologist
dental technician
medical laboratory technologist
medical radiation technologist
medical technician
operating room technician
preventative medicine technician
