Ways to solidfy interest in Milmed? (Volunteer/Shadow)

Hi y'all,
to preface my first post in this sub-forums, let me thank those who have given a wide perspective on military medicine in general. I have lurked here since several months ago and just now decided to register since I want to ask some questions (and ideally answer some later). In fact, I have mainly read the long posts in this section since discovering SDN, but I'm guessing I will start branching out once apps near.

I am a junior (3rd year) in undergrad and have been interested in military medicine ever since I started college. Right now, I've been looking at the Navy (initially flight surgery) but am not necessarily locked in with them.


My musings and questions- I am hoping to do shadow a doctor at a NAS/Naval Hospital and was curious if this was a common occurrence or not. I searched around here and found that people had done it before. The caveat of sorts in my case is that the closest air station (or any military medicine facility) is a 4 hour drive away, so I can't just walk in and ask a specific doctor if I can shadow him or her.
1) Does anyone know if I would be able to email the right person (Public Affairs Officer? Chief Information Officer?) and find reasonable success, or if it is even a good barometer for military medicine? I am hoping to kill two birds with one stone since I have not shadowed a doctor yet, so I hope to combine both 'tasks' in one action.
2) The only available date and time for me will be on Saturdays, and I would ideally be able to go once or twice a month. Looking at the hospital's hours, it looks like only the Family Practice/Pediatrics clinic is open every Sat., with Flight Medicine open every first Sat. of the month. This question sort of stems off of the first question, but do any current/former physicians know if business significantly slows (or better yet, increases) on a Saturday?

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Depends on where you live.
You can always e-mail the HPSP people and they can give you better info.

That e-mail is [email protected]

I, too, am considering Navy, and although I had shadowed in the past, wanted very much to get in and see military medicine. It is possible. I worked with the GME coordinator at a Naval Hospital near me and had an amazing day set up complete with shadowing 2 of their top docs; one a program director on outpatient, another on the wards; and attending team meetings/conferences, etc. I would recommend contacting that person at the hospital you are interested in.

I don't know about typical hours, but I do know I also visited an Army med center on a Saturday (I did the above shadowing mid-week), and the place was completely dead. I would really try to get at least one week day scheduled even if it means missing class or trying to take a day off work. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions and good luck!

I appreciate the quick replies so far.

Desperado- Unfortunately, I am down all the way in Texas, so going up to Virginia for shadowing isn't that feasible for me. 🙁

NavyFP- Thank you for the email addy. I've only contacted the local 'health professions officer' recruiter before, but ideally the person you listed (in charge of all of the Navy Heatlh education?) would know the best or most convenient route for me to experience Milmed.

an1s- Sounds promising. At worst, I can always visit the Naval Hospital someday during winter break (take a break from studying for MCATs! ). I'll take you up on the 'PM offer' and poke you for more info since I can't seem to find any specific physician's info on the NHCC website, only the department phone numbers.


Another random question for those who may know anything: On the NHCC website (https://www.nhcorpushcs.med.navy.mil/index.shtml#), there is a link to a program called 'Persona' under the "NHCC Information" link. ...Is this by chance a directory listing of docs or something? It asks to install a program, so I don't want to add unnecessary crud to my computer if I can help it.

Persona is for access to CHCS. It is what we use to enter prescriptions, look up labs, etc.

Extra thanks to you, NavyFP, as I have somehow already gotten directed to a doctor at NHCC who was very eager to give a run down of the environment and set up dates for shadowing. Needless to say, I was surprised at the rapidness (maybe cause I'm a slooow person 😳) but am happy since I can squeeze in time during winter break.

Wait, you found someone in Texas? I live in Texas also and would love to shadow a Navy doc. So far, I've only been able to talk to a few Navy docs through friends.

The Navy HPSP site has been down for sometime...