Any Air Force Docs out there that took the HPSP I've got questions.

[B4y 4RE4 N4Tiv3]

Apparently in the Army and Navy taking the HPSP is like jumping into a dumpster fire so my question is how is it for Air force Docs because I was in the army as an enlisted soldier (Hated it).

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[WernickeDO]

I'm not an Air Force doc but if you have had a taste of the military as an enlisted and you hated it, I can guarantee you will hate it as a doc too.

 

[teacherman84]

Apparently in the Army and Navy taking the HPSP is like jumping into a dumpster fire so my question is how is it for Air force Docs because I was in the army as an enlisted soldier (Hated it).

Also a dumpster fire...just a different color smoke.
I think the nonsense that makes Navy and Army Medicine frustrating is also seen in the AF so I would say if you hated your enlistment you're probably not going to be happier crossing into the blue.
HPSP is great while you're in school for any branch...free money plus summer camp.
I'm still in residency so still protected from some things but all the issues and concerns i read on here from different branches are all things I hear echoed from staff docs I work with...some specialties may be better than others but if the military wasn't fun for you you probably will feel the same in the AF.

 

[B4y 4RE4 N4Tiv3]

Also a dumpster fire...just a different color smoke.
I think the nonsense that makes Navy and Army Medicine frustrating is also seen in the AF so I would say if you hated your enlistment you're probably not going to be happier crossing into the blue.
HPSP is great while you're in school for any branch...free money plus summer camp.
I'm still in residency so still protected from some things but all the issues and concerns i read on here from different branches are all things I hear echoed from staff docs I work with...some specialties may be better than others but if the military wasn't fun for you you probably will feel the same in the AF.

Thanks for the insight wish you well in residency.

 

[jabreal00]

I was Army HPSP and my wife was Air Force HPSP. Like mentioned above medical school, residency and fellowship in any of the services isn't bad at all. Trainees are protected from the day to day BS military officers have to deal with. Anecdotally from our personal experience, Air Force officers are treated more professionally than Army by a long shot. At my first duty station after training, I had to report for formation every morning at 0600hrs for the first week while I was in-processing. The NCO of the clinic would periodically do "accountability checks" by calling on a weekend to make sure we were not MIA. Random urine drug screen tests, meant everything had to be dropped and you had to show up in uniform at 0600hrs (if patient cases had to be cancelled so be it). The list goes on. My wife did not have one single of this experience in her payback time. Though she had her complaints about her time in service but pales in comparison t mine.

 

[Ziehl-Neelsen]

IMO, the idea that there is a military branch of service categorically better for doctors is bunk. To paraphrase Tolstoy, "Each unhappy military doctor is unhappy in his own way."

The USAF has better leave policies but also has increased chances of a GMO tour between internship and residency, crappy combined residencies at Keesler, Wright-Patt, and Travis where you are farmed out to the local civilian hospitals because your home hospital doesn't have the volume or acuity, and a large number of "pseudo-hospitals" (RAF Mildenhall, Langley AFB, Andrews AFB, etc.) where a specialized physician won't be able to practice the full range of his particular specialty.

If you hated the military while you were enlisted, I'd steer clear of the military as a physician.

 

[teacherman84]

I was Army HPSP and my wife was Air Force HPSP. Like mentioned above medical school, residency and fellowship in any of the services isn't bad at all. Trainees are protected from the day to day BS military officers have to deal with. Anecdotally from our personal experience, Air Force officers are treated more professionally than Army by a long shot. At my first duty station after training, I had to report for formation every morning at 0600hrs for the first week while I was in-processing. The NCO of the clinic would periodically do "accountability checks" by calling on a weekend to make sure we were not MIA. Random urine drug screen tests, meant everything had to be dropped and you had to show up in uniform at 0600hrs (if patient cases had to be cancelled so be it). The list goes on. My wife did not have one single of this experience in her payback time. Though she had her complaints about her time in service but pales in comparison t mine.

Ugh you win (or lose)...that does sound a lot worse. We still deal with a lot of silly mil stuff and mil med stuff (endless CBTs, meetings, comitees, random drug screens disrupting patient care) but we are protected from a lot more by our PD.