Slight confusion on transitional year/Navy GMO

[acsb_21]

Sorry for my confusion. I’ve been perusing the forums for a while and I just wanted to clear some things up.

1. A lot of people are saying the downsides of GMO and GTFO are that you lose the skills you learned from your transitional year. I thought not all specialties require a transitional year? Am I misunderstanding what a transitional year is? Are the specialties that don’t require a transitional year (if any) more likely to go straight through?

2. Does the Navy publish its residency slot numbers like the AF does? Which specialties are *most likely* (obviously nothing’s guaranteed) to go straight through? What else impacts that, your grades and scores?

3. If you become a FS will you get deployed on a ship or is it land based?

4. As a FS, does your vision need to meet the requirement for Navy pilots?

5. If you take a 4 year Navy HPSP scholarship, do a transitional year, then serve two 2 year GMO tours, does that mean you still have 1 year of AD to pay back? Could you just extend your second GMO tour by a year?

Thanks in advance.

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[Barrel Proof]

1. Yes, you are misunderstanding what a transitional year is. There is no specialty that requires a transitional year. It is simply another type of internship but it is non-categorical. For example, if you want to be an OBGYN you would be best served doing an OBGYN internship or you would risk having to repeat your PGY-1 entirely.

Transitional year in the Navy is used really in two ways. People that are going for residencies which do not have categorical PGY-1 slots (ie derm, Rads, anesthesia, path etc)- the idea being why put yourself through an IM or Gen Surg internship when you can just do TY? The other group that ends up doing a TY is those that missed on the specialty they were aiming for (Often times EM, ortho, OB etc)

Transitional year is a solid internship. You do a little bit of everything. It prepares you well
to be a GMO if you take advantage of what it has to offer. You can use your electives to brush up on weaknesses or just prepare you for GMO land. It is not the right call for everyone. Feel free to PM with questions, happy to assist as I did my internship as a Navy TY...

2. Yes. The navy publishes a BUMED note yearly with specific numbers wrt residency slots. I have heard it should be coming out soon, probably this coming week. Going straight through varies year to year and specialty to specialty. No straight answer for you unfortunately.

3 and 4 I will defer to a flight surgeon to answer for you.

5. If you do a transitional year internship after accepting a 4 year HPSP scholarship, you will owe 4 years when you finish internship. So you could GMO 4 years and be done. Hope that helps.

 

[j4pac]

Sorry for my confusion. I’ve been perusing the forums for a while and I just wanted to clear some things up.

1. A lot of people are saying the downsides of GMO and GTFO are that you lose the skills you learned from your transitional year. I thought not all specialties require a transitional year? Am I misunderstanding what a transitional year is? Are the specialties that don’t require a transitional year (if any) more likely to go straight through?

2. Does the Navy publish its residency slot numbers like the AF does? Which specialties are *most likely* (obviously nothing’s guaranteed) to go straight through? What else impacts that, your grades and scores?

3. If you become a FS will you get deployed on a ship or is it land based?

4. As a FS, does your vision need to meet the requirement for Navy pilots?

5. If you take a 4 year Navy HPSP scholarship, do a transitional year, then serve two 2 year GMO tours, does that mean you still have 1 year of AD to pay back? Could you just extend your second GMO tour by a year?

Thanks in advance.

3. There are both deployable and non-deployable units in FS. Some example of non-deployable units include training squadrons, hospital owned billets, and the demonstration squadron (Blue Angels). The other squadrons are operational, and can and do deploy.

4. FS do have vision standards...but they aren’t the standards of a designated pilot.

Per the NAMI waiver guide:
All [FS] applicants must meet SNA Applicant standards except as follows:
Visual Acuity, Distant and Near: No limit uncorrected. Must correct to 20/20 each eye. If the AFVT or Goodlite letters are used, a score of 7/10 on the 20/20 line constitutes meeting visual acuity requirements.
Refraction. No limits.

 

[acsb_21]

Thank y'all. I will take these things into account.

 

[John1513]

You can view GMO year as a way to practice primary care. You can go work with the Marines, or become a UMO or Flight Surgeon. The vision requirements are not as strict as an Aviator. There are also medical waivers possible as well.

 

[libo1369]

Sorry for my confusion. I’ve been perusing the forums for a while and I just wanted to clear some things up.

1. A lot of people are saying the downsides of GMO and GTFO are that you lose the skills you learned from your transitional year. I thought not all specialties require a transitional year? Am I misunderstanding what a transitional year is? Are the specialties that don’t require a transitional year (if any) more likely to go straight through?

3. If you become a FS will you get deployed on a ship or is it land based?

4. As a FS, does your vision need to meet the requirement for Navy pilots?

5. If you take a 4 year Navy HPSP scholarship, do a transitional year, then serve two 2 year GMO tours, does that mean you still have 1 year of AD to pay back? Could you just extend your second GMO tour by a year?

Thanks in advance.

Haven't posted in a while but nearly a GMO expert 7 years in the lifestyle.

1. I will attest that you do lose a lot of skills from internship and medical school you gain the self assurance of being able to stand on your own as a physician. There are in fact residencies in the military that while not necessarily require a transitional year attract a lot of transitional students to include Opthamology, Dermatology, Radiology, Occ Med, Prev Med Etc....

2. Has been answered above

3. Flight Surgery depends on the unit you pick (you kind of get to pick) some are more deployable than others and some are "land" based and still fly everywhere like the C-130 unit in Japan.

4. Concur as above by JPAC. If you want specifics I can get them for you. Also may be able to just look up MANMED CHP 15 and see the guidance recommendations. Waivers are still possible.

5. 4 Years of GMO would qualify as your payback and you could get out after that.