AMEDD Guard member - want to do non-critical wartime specialty

[Reluctant7]

I'm an M4 in the Nat'l Guard AMEDD program and I want to match into a residency that is not on the critical wartime specialty list. I am OK with not getting any STRAP during residency and not getting any student loan repayment or retention bonuses following residency. My question is, can I still serve in the medical corps in the Army National Guard even if I'm not on the critical wartime shortage list? Can I still be a general medical officer? If any of you are in the Guard (not Reserves or Active Duty) and are specialized in something not on the shortage list (ie: optho, derm, neuro, peds, nuclear med, etc), I would really appreciate your input. Thanks!

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[EMH]

I'm an M4 in the Nat'l Guard AMEDD program and I want to match into a residency that is not on the critical wartime specialty list. I am OK with not getting any STRAP during residency and not getting any student loan repayment or retention bonuses following residency. My question is, can I still serve in the medical corps in the Army National Guard even if I'm not on the critical wartime shortage list? Can I still be a general medical officer? If any of you are in the Guard (not Reserves or Active Duty) and are specialized in something not on the shortage list (ie: optho, derm, neuro, peds, nuclear med, etc), I would really appreciate your input. Thanks!

This is a good question and I'm surprised you haven't received an answer. When I asked this question as an M2 here is what I was told. You would probably want to get transfered to the Reserves where they have slots for these specialties. They did say they wouldn't force me to switch to the reserves and that I could remain in the ARNG and continue to drill with the MEDCOM doing PHAs and SRPs without any of the good incentives. The question of what slot they would put you in I don't know.

Hopefully someone else will see this and give you a better answer.

 

[DrRoast]

I'm an M4 in the Nat'l Guard AMEDD program and I want to match into a residency that is not on the critical wartime specialty list. I am OK with not getting any STRAP during residency and not getting any student loan repayment or retention bonuses following residency. My question is, can I still serve in the medical corps in the Army National Guard even if I'm not on the critical wartime shortage list? Can I still be a general medical officer? If any of you are in the Guard (not Reserves or Active Duty) and are specialized in something not on the shortage list (ie: optho, derm, neuro, peds, nuclear med, etc), I would really appreciate your input. Thanks!

Now I may be wrong here, but I thought I would post what I had heard. I think you can go to flight surgeon school and then fill a flight surgeon slot with a medical unit. Then, you could also get all the good incentives (Loan Repayment/Specialty Bonus) as a flight surgeon. Like I said, not sure if this is true, but this is what another Guardsmen told me when we were at BOLC when someone said something about doing a non-critical wartime specialty.

 

[notdeadyet]

Now I may be wrong here, but I thought I would post what I had heard. I think you can go to flight surgeon school and then fill a flight surgeon slot with a medical unit. Then, you could also get all the good incentives (Loan Repayment/Specialty Bonus) as a flight surgeon. Like I said, not sure if this is true, but this is what another Guardsmen told me when we were at BOLC when someone said something about doing a non-critical wartime specialty.

Yeah, this is a possibility, as is being a Batallion Surgeon. But both of these specialties are still closed to certain specialties that also are not on the critical warfare shortage list.

 

[Boopieness]

If you are in the national guard, you may stay in as a flight surgeon, whatever your specialty - you can go to the course and become one. However, you definitely will not get any incentives for it in the NG if not on the CWSL (critical wartime shortage list)

On the other hand, if you are a flight surgeon (attended the 6 week course) you may get incentives and bonus after you are residency trained (I believe it was 75k for a 3 year obligation and up to 150k professional student loan repayment.) If you go to the reserves and are not on the CWSL.

The national guard will not give you anything for being a flight surgeon with being a specialty not on the critical shortage list. What the NG WILL provide you is the opportunity to fund you for the course. Reserves rarely if ever gets money to do these types of training. There was only one reservist physician who attended my flight surgeon class.

Thus, get the training from the NG, then switch to reserve for the incentives.

I am a clinical pathologist and am a flight surgeon, NG would not give me a dime. But the med students received incentives at the time.(I was so jealous.)

I am now strongly considering going over to the Army Reserves for those incentives. Thus, while I do not have first-hand knowledge of getting incentives as an Army Reservist (getting incentives being a FS with specialty not on the CWSL.) I can assure you, beyond doubt, you will get absolutely nothing as a FS NG member not on CWSL.

 

[Reluctant7]

Thank you all for your advice. It sounds like I'm not the only one trying to do this. I really didn't want to choose a specialty just to get/keep Guard incentives. Glad to know others are doing the same.

 

[EMH]

Thank you all for your advice. It sounds like I'm not the only one trying to do this. I really didn't want to choose a specialty just to get/keep Guard incentives. Glad to know others are doing the same.

It's a bit of a hard thing to do because everyone factors money into their decision, but my advise would be to pick something you will enjoy since you're going to be doing it for a long time unless you go back and do another residency. Besides, you never know what specialties will pay in the future with all the uncertainty in medicine today.

 

[pre-med444]

If you take mdssp and strap can you still qualify for the loan repayment (hplrp) and bonuses (special pay program)? Thanks. Basically in what way can I get the most incentives overall. I am not afraid of a large obligation. Could I do just strap and get hplrp + special pay after etc. What combinations works the best? Also, if I join regular guard during med school can I go into strap program no problem?

 

[notdeadyet]

pre-med444- Do not make multiple posts. Your question has been answered in one of your threads. Do not continue posting the same question to all NG-related threads. It is a violation of TOS.