- Joined
- Aug 31, 2003
- Messages
- 330
- Reaction score
- 1
Well, after a long time, 1 July 2006 has arrived, and I am officially out of the Army!!!!
FYI, since it is a FAQ here, I will start off by telling every prospective HPSP-er that after 4 years of HPSP, a 4-year residency, and 4 years of payback, I HAVE NO FURTHER MILITARY COMMITMENT (IRR, etc).
I have mixed feelings about the overall experience:
* Everything went well in med school and ADTs.
* Residency (Madigan) was a good solid program. I learned a lot and had some really good teachers. Of course, being military, they all come and go, so there is no guarantee of continuity.
* Being staff at a small MEDDAC pretty much stunk. All the money, staff, attention and everything else goes the the big MEDCENS (think WRAMC, BAMC, MAMC, etc) and the smaller places get shafted. You have zero control over how you work or what you can do.
* The $64,000 question: Would I do it all over again? I really don't know. Probably not, but like they say, hindsight is 20/20.
* My best advice would be this:
** If you are already in the system and you like it, great, more power to you. The military needs all the good docs it can get.
** If you hate it, too bad; do right by your patients, but otherwise just suck it up and start planning for your post-military life -- it's never too early to start planning.
** If you are just now thinking about joining via USUHS, HPSP, or whatever, ask yourself the following question: "Would I join the military today even if I were NOT going to be a doctor?" If the answer to that is "Yes," then go ahead and sign up; you'll probably love it. If the answer is "Hell no!" or even a "not sure," then do yourself a favor and make other plans -- the financial aspects won't be worth 8+ years of unhappiness.
Best of luck to everyone. There is a wealth of great info here, both pro and con; I wish this forum had been around in 1993!
Signing out, happily, under my new handle of "X-R-Me-Doc"
FYI, since it is a FAQ here, I will start off by telling every prospective HPSP-er that after 4 years of HPSP, a 4-year residency, and 4 years of payback, I HAVE NO FURTHER MILITARY COMMITMENT (IRR, etc).
I have mixed feelings about the overall experience:
* Everything went well in med school and ADTs.
* Residency (Madigan) was a good solid program. I learned a lot and had some really good teachers. Of course, being military, they all come and go, so there is no guarantee of continuity.
* Being staff at a small MEDDAC pretty much stunk. All the money, staff, attention and everything else goes the the big MEDCENS (think WRAMC, BAMC, MAMC, etc) and the smaller places get shafted. You have zero control over how you work or what you can do.
* The $64,000 question: Would I do it all over again? I really don't know. Probably not, but like they say, hindsight is 20/20.
* My best advice would be this:
** If you are already in the system and you like it, great, more power to you. The military needs all the good docs it can get.
** If you hate it, too bad; do right by your patients, but otherwise just suck it up and start planning for your post-military life -- it's never too early to start planning.
** If you are just now thinking about joining via USUHS, HPSP, or whatever, ask yourself the following question: "Would I join the military today even if I were NOT going to be a doctor?" If the answer to that is "Yes," then go ahead and sign up; you'll probably love it. If the answer is "Hell no!" or even a "not sure," then do yourself a favor and make other plans -- the financial aspects won't be worth 8+ years of unhappiness.
Best of luck to everyone. There is a wealth of great info here, both pro and con; I wish this forum had been around in 1993!
Signing out, happily, under my new handle of "X-R-Me-Doc"
