Okay so i have skimmed through some of the postings....I am lightly considering doing the Air Force thing in residency, part of it I must admit is the financial incentive. Anyone has some advice for or against this?
Air Force or not
- Thread starter yobabydoc
- Start date
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2006
- Messages
- 998
- Reaction score
- 23
yobabydoc said:
If its surgery, or any subspecialty requiring lots of support, RUN AWAY.
But what you should really do, is read the pro/con, avoid mil med, decline of military medicine, and pretty much any post that leads to the realization that at this point in time, military medicine is not really a good option unless you have a specific reason you want to be an officer first, and a physician second, or third or fourth.
If you think about it in terms of money, you will be 100% miserable, and not so well off financially in the long run.
USAFdoc said:
Either cards or heme onc for fellowship. Or I might just do straight primary care. Dang is it really as bad as everyone is making it out to be? I did read some of the other posts and they were full of all negative. I would like a balanced view, does anyonehav anything positive to say about their experoence?
- Joined
- May 21, 2005
- Messages
- 1,011
- Reaction score
- 1
yobabydoc said:
Positives?
Yes, the docs I worked with were good colleagues. You are getting to serve your country, the patients were generally good, and as deserving of good healthcare as anyone. All the docs liked their deployments. The pay is decent (about 60 K year after taxes with another 10K bonus for board cirtif and another 10K possible bonus per year (except in the last year of your obligation). The formulary was good, and...................well, thats about all the good. Read all the other threads for the laundy list of the bad and the ugly.
- Joined
- May 21, 2005
- Messages
- 1,011
- Reaction score
- 1
IgD said:
Take what you read on this message board from IgD with a grain of salt. He is probably not a practicing physician and seems to get a thrill out of discouraging the truth.[/
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2006
- Messages
- 998
- Reaction score
- 23
Call up as many active duty physicians as you can and get it straight from their mouths. While your investigating this, at some point you have to take something as the truth, especially if you hear it over and over again.
As for Idg, he/she is a prime example of one of the reasons you should not join. He/she could be your boss.
As for Idg, he/she is a prime example of one of the reasons you should not join. He/she could be your boss.
There seems to be a lot of bitterness in this corner of the website. Thank y'all for your responses. Galo thank you for the suggestionof calling up those who are practicing, most useful think i've heard. Have a gerat day everyone
- Joined
- Jun 14, 2004
- Messages
- 4,554
- Reaction score
- 456
USAFdoc said:
No charts? What do you mean by that statement? How are patient records kept?
How are some of the other specialties in the Air Force (e.g., EM, rads, anesthesia)?
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2005
- Messages
- 1,072
- Reaction score
- 7
deuist said:
USAFdoc has mentioned before that the FPs in the Air Force routinely fail to receive patients' charts before seeing them.
I can vouch for this; as a patient I actually started requesting copies of anything I thought might be relevant and bringing it with me to my appointments.
The charts exist... somewhere...
-Pemberley
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2005
- Messages
- 143
- Reaction score
- 1
The "updated electronic record known as CHCS II (AHLTA)" is now online at many facilities... With this, one can be seen at any DOD facility (USAF, ARMY, NAVY) and the record will be at your fingertips on the computer as well as labs. Problem is, consults are NOT being entered/scanned into this so if one was sent to a non-military doc or a civilian doc, it won't be in the electronic chart....
My base just began using it facility wide 1 month ago and it alleviates the "can't find the record", but it has some faults to it and is time consuming to get used to; and therefore, has some spin-up problems at bases just getting to start it... BTW, this was 10 years after I was told we were going to get this NEW system piggybacked onto the old system... In my view, way to long, too much money, and still doesn't seem much better than the VA's systsem I used in the mid 1990's....
My base just began using it facility wide 1 month ago and it alleviates the "can't find the record", but it has some faults to it and is time consuming to get used to; and therefore, has some spin-up problems at bases just getting to start it... BTW, this was 10 years after I was told we were going to get this NEW system piggybacked onto the old system... In my view, way to long, too much money, and still doesn't seem much better than the VA's systsem I used in the mid 1990's....
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2004
- Messages
- 784
- Reaction score
- 5
USAFGMODOC said:
C'mon, didn't you enjoy the esoteric art of learning all those CHCS keystrokes and shortcuts
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2006
- Messages
- 998
- Reaction score
- 23
deuist said:
As a general surgeon, I can tell you that more than 20-30% of the time patients would show up with a blank piece of paper, and sometime with little information as to what Ii was seeing them for. This would require a litany of time spent in front of CHCS crap looking for information.
Only one of the inconveniences of being in the military with an antiquated information system. Also, depending on what base you were at. At Offut, (now closed, and only a "clinic"), we actually had to place ICD-9 codes for every patient we saw. THey also want to you to document the number of cases you see. Although that is not a bad idea, and should be done routinely. The input system into the computer was not friendly at all, and lots of times, the ICD-9 codes you needed did not exist in the computer. It was why we would stay 1-2 hrs after clinic to do "paperwork." At WP, we did not have to do this.
There's just so many negatives, its hard to put them all down, and not seem cynical.
