I'm a second year DO candidate and currently studying for boards. Should I take both? If you took both, please give me your rationale and the source (medical education director, program director, etc.) that advised you to do so. Thanks in advance!
Navy HPSP, COMLEX and USMLE?
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Pretty sure the Navy will only pay for one, if that is a concern.
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most of the kids at my school doing this are taking both. I know its a relatively more rare chance, but if you decide to do something that can get you a deferment into a civilian residency (Ortho, Gen Surg, Psych, etc), it will look better to have both. I talked to an AF HPSP student recently that was having this dilemma as well.
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Most Navy graduates will train in Navy GME. The Air Force defers more of their students to civilian programs than anyone else so AF medical students have increased pressure to do both. If you feel pretty certain you want to train in a Navy residency, and are not interested in anything super competitive then you likely will only need the COMLEX. What specialties are you interested in right now?
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I almost did HPSP navy, and from what the recruiters were saying, the hardest thing to get into in Navy residency is EM (so few spots). Also with the point system, if you do GMO, you can pretty much get into any specialty you want...except neuro surgery. They maybe have 1-2 spots every year for that.
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Sounds like Navy HPSP students kind of get screwed compared to Air Force and Army.
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Why is that? Army doesn't really defer anyone, Navy defers a few, and Air Force defers a lot. Personally I feel it's the AF that's gets the short end of the stick. But then again I feel a military residency is a definite plus especially for a DO.
what did you end up doing and why?
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Im not HPSP myself so I could be mistaken, but I believe the Army doesn't have GMO tours. The Air Force provides civilian deferments if there's not many spots in the match. The Navy might only have a handful of spots for even a fairly non-competitive specialty, and if you don't match that send you on a GMO tour after a transitional year.
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Either going to do FAP for navy or nothing. I get to pick my residency. If I would have decided to do HPSP before I started medical school, that would have been a good fit. However, I had decided too late to do HPSP, so I would have been limited to 3 or 2 year or the 50K/year scholarship.
did you get accepted for HPSP? if so, how long was the process from applying to getting accepted for you?
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I was mostly contrasting the services in regards to civilian deferments. GMO is a whole other topic, cowboy. I don't think the Air Force "provides" civilian deferments but rather doesn't provide enough military residencies for those that are interested. It's great being able to defer if thats what you would like but it is a bummer when it happens involuntarily. It is my opinion that most DO military graduates will not be able to match into better residencies then the military can provide. It's not that military residencies are so good or that there are not stellar DO military students. It is just on average you don't see DOs matching into more prestigious programs. So
when I hear DO students talk about how great it is that AF defers so many of their students.Sorry man, I'm going to have to correct you on a few things here. GMO tours do help you with matching into your specialty of choice but it would be a stretch to say you can get any residency you want after that. There are many members that post on the military medicine forum that have had to leave the service to pursue their residency because there where not enough in service training for them even after multiple operational tours.
Docs aren't usually stationed on subs. Ships on the other hand...
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I was mostly contrasting the services in regards to civilian deferments. GMO is a whole other topic, cowboy. I don't think the Air Force "provides" civilian deferments but rather doesn't provide enough military residencies for those that are interested. It's great being able to defer if thats what you would like but it is a bummer when it happens involuntarily. It is my opinion that most DO military graduates will not be able to match into better residencies then the military can provide. It's not that military residencies are so good or that there are not stellar DO military students. It is just on average you don't see DOs matching into more prestigious programs. So
Sorry man, I'm going to have to correct you on a few things here. GMO tours do help you with matching into your specialty of choice but it would be a stretch to say you can get any residency you want after that. There are many members that post on the military medicine forum that have had to leave the service to pursue their residency because there where not enough in service training for them even after multiple operational tours.
Docs aren't usually stationed on subs. Ships on the other hand...
I hope you're right about the sub thing! (My S.O. is in Navy HPSP)
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/anyone-actually-done-a-navy-gmo-tour.77416/
second guy down had done one stint in GMO as a Diver and one "in Submarines" (possibly more specific as a DMO instead of GMO?). Does that mean he was in a boat monitoring the submarines, or one of the few in the actual sub on the medical team?
And you're correct, speaking in generality as "you will 100% get your desired specialty no questions asked" would be misleading d/t finite number of spots available. only meant to convey increased chance of placing a desired residency spot.
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Correct. DMO or UMO (undersea medical officers) are operational tours like GMO or flight surgeon. You are trained as a certified Navy diver and work with an assigned unit as their go-to-doc. If you are assigned to submarines you work to ensure everyone passes the rigid physical standards before deployment however you rarely spend that deployment on the sub yourself. That's usually the job of assigned medics or PAs. The poster you quoted spent only 30 days on a submarine, enough to get your dolphins (navy submarine qualification) but not a full deployment.
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