DCM said:
As far as I understand:
-provides about $1300/mo stipend plus $22000/yr bonus on top of your resident salary while you are in a civilian residency program
-available to residents in specialties the Navy needs(ex: Gen Surg, FP, Rads)
-active duty commitment = years in program +1 year(so if you used it all five years of surgery residency you would serve 6 years afterwards)
-years as a resident do not count as time in service(active duty nor reserve)
Benefit over HPSP is you come in as a finished product, so no GMO tour.
A family friend did this program for 4 years as a general surgery resident. After residency he served one year on a carrier and then went back to harvard for two years as an active duty doctor to train in Vascular Surgery (and added 2 years to commitment). He now is in a 6 year assignment to Portsmouth NMC and will be finished.
OldJeeps!
Whats up.
Thanks for the email and sorry for the delay in response.. its certianly NOT because of my non-interest in helping, rather a crazy.. really crazy month that I happen to be going through..
Ok, FAP. Well, it prob. will take you all of 30 seconds to make a 10 page list of why NOT to go into HPSP... all you have to do is look at EVER posting on this web and you will see all the negatives. Well, FAP is basically ALL the good with NON of the "bad of HPSP" but with some +/- "bad " of its own?
What does that mean.
Ok lets start from the begining. The way FAP works is that you don't have ANY connection withthe military while in med school. Then when you are in your fourth year, and have choosen what residency you want to do, you apply for the FAP. The FAP has NOTHING what so ever to do with your residency and or where you match. So you basically go on to match in your choosen speciality just like any old civilian... NO difference what so ever.... There is only one thing to this, and that is that you can NOT apply to FAP if you choose a speciality that FAP is NOT offered in. So if you (as a fourth year) choose to do anything other than Gen Surg, Orth, Peds, IM, FP ( I think I am forgeting one?)..
Ok.. second thing to remember is that you do NOT get paid unless you are in residency. If you are in the FAP program, you go about doing your residency (remember YOUR CHOICE OF LOCATION, RESIDENCY.. BLAH BLAH.. THE MILITARY HAS NO SAY IN THIS) AND while you are in residency you get paid about 22,000 every july (pretax,.. so you get about 16,000) and then you get about 1300 (pre tax, so about 550 biweekly) for the whole year. This is, of ourse, in ADDITION to what you are being paid by your civilian residency.
So what do you have to do durning medical school and or resdiency you ask? NOTHING AT ALL>>>> the contract says that you have to do 14 days of AT, but that means that you have to fax your sheet in to the neares cammand at any random 14 days in a year and they will sign it, and then you fax it to them again at the end of the 14 days and they sign it again. So, like me and others in FAP that I know, you go about your medial shool and your residency exacly the same as any civilian without any military influence (I know that I keep repeating this, but the idea that someone lets the navy dictate thier life in what to do and what carear to have is just crazy in my book.. ) and never have to ever even go to a miltary cammand... until you are done with your residency.
Meanwhile, you do not have to be in contact with anyone. but if you do need help you contact your speciality leader, not some random desk person (as in HPSP).. So I am a general surgeon, so if I need anything what so ever I talk to a capt who knows who I am by names (since there is only so few of us ) and so the crazy paper work trail is so so much better.. its acually very effienct...
Ok.. so is it all roses.. well, Of course not.. nothing is for free..... so here it is.:
you will owe the military to work IN YOUR FIELD ( another extra bonus).. a year for each year they paid for you, plus a year. So if the pay for 3 years you owe 4, if they pay of 4 you will owe 5 and so on. But the important thing is that you are working IN YOUR FIELD, AND THEIR IS NO SUCH THING AS GMO TOURS... you will never ever been sent on a GMO tour.. and you will never ever be pulledout of your residency ( never has happend, and according to three capts in the higher GME levels, it has never ever been even considered or discussed.. even in a time like we are now, where their is a major shortage).
But where would you work you say.. ?
Well it depends on what you are in.. what speiality that is. Meaning, by contract, the military will never put you in a place where you will not be practicing your trade. no of course, you can end up in a place where it is very very slow, like us surgeons may have to do a aircraft carear deployment. If that happens, your speicality leader always makes sure that it is for ~6-9 months only. The reason is to keep up your skills .. remember, they need you to stay sharp in your field.. cause you are more vulable then the hundereds of sorry GMO guys (sorry guys) that they don't give a Sh__ about thier skills since they still have training to go under, you are done.. and ready to work..
So do you have a choice in where you end up. Usually the choices are the major hospitals. Of course you will be deployed for up to 6 months about once ever 3-4 years (depending on if bush is war crazy at that time or not) but for the most part you spend your time in one of the hospitals either in the US or aborad. Do you have a choice, yes.. in fact as I said you are in touch with your spcialty leader and you tell him/her what you want and they look at what is needed and your seniority and you go from there. But just remeber that even in the WORST case siniorio.. you are still doing what you want (speicialty wise)(unlike HPSP), and you are still working in a hospital (except for th occ. deployement, when it happens)(unlike HPSP)..
So like for me, I submitted my wish list last month, and got a call last week telling me that I have a choice to go to my 2nd, 3rd or 5th place on my list and that it is my choice.. so Its not bad at all...
There is loads more things we can talk about.. but I have been up all night opening chests and bellys.. chicago can be crazy.. it was -3 degrees yesterday and we still managed to get 7 gun shots.. I don't even know how bullets fly in that kinds of temps.. so I will sign off for now with an apology to my bad bad spelling.. I am just to sleepy to care..
but please ask any questions that you may have.. I might sound like am to biased.. but I am really not.. and will always give you the very honest opinion...
good luck..
A