A doctor needs to whisper from greater than 5 ft away from you. If you can hear it, you have normal hearing and you've passed!
We constantly hear horror stories about the hearing tests, where doctors, nurse practitioners and medical staff don't read the instructions which results in hours of going to a hearing booth or taking a Functional Speech Discrimination test. If you have normal hearing and can hear when someone whispers from greater than 5 ft away from you make sure to help the person giving you the physical by having them read the instructions.
If you pass and have normal hearing all the Medical Practitioner needs to do is check the "Normal Hearing" box!
Make sure to prefill, print out and bring all ten pages of the USCG CG719K medical form with you to your appointment with the Medical Practitioner. Here's the form for reference: https://www.dco.uscg.mil/nmc/medical_certificate/
We hope this made your life a little easier and if you have other questions the MM-SEAS team is always here to help!
MM-SEAS is free to use on your own and if you need some more personalized help you can upgrade to MM-SEAS Expert Access inside of the site.
No matter what, when you are ready to submit your application you can do it yourself, or you can hand the whole thing to us. A Stress-Free MMC is $399. Two MM-SEAS licensing experts check every page, we pay your Coast Guard fees at submission and charge your card so you never touch pay.gov, and we stay on it with the National Maritime Center until your credential is issued.
MM-SEAS Expert Access is $99 a year. It is your personal guidance counselor for USCG licensing: what training you need next, which sea time counts, and how to reach the credential you want, by phone, email, chat or a 1 on 1 video call. Expert Access members also get $50 off a Stress-Free MMC.
Need to renew, upgrade or get your first USCG license? We're here to help.
About the author
Nate Gilman is President and Co-Founder of MM-SEAS. He hawsepiped from the deck to a 3rd Mate Unlimited license with full STCW compliance over more than 15 years at sea, and is a veteran of the NOAA Commissioned Corps. He works directly with the National Maritime Center, USCG-approved training schools, and vessel operators on credentialing policy, and writes on sea service documentation, evaluation standards, and how mariners move up the license ladder.
