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Does anyone have an updated critical wartime shortage list for the ARNG or army reserves? I'm interested in knowing if radiology or radiation oncology are on the list.
Is Radiology a critical wartime specialty?
- Thread starter Enkidu
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Quick answer is No. not for FY 13, this is for reserve and AD, I do not know if NG is the same, since that will vary state to state.
FY 13 CWS list:
Anesthesiology
Emergency Medicine
Family Medicine
Flight Surgeon
General Surgery
Infectious Disease Officer
Obstetrics/Gynecology
Ophthalmology
Otolaryngologist
Orthopedic Surgery
Preventive Medicine
Psychiatry
Pulmonary Disease Officer
Thoracic Surgery
Urology
FY 13 CWS list:
Anesthesiology
Emergency Medicine
Family Medicine
Flight Surgeon
General Surgery
Infectious Disease Officer
Obstetrics/Gynecology
Ophthalmology
Otolaryngologist
Orthopedic Surgery
Preventive Medicine
Psychiatry
Pulmonary Disease Officer
Thoracic Surgery
Urology
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And am I right in thinking that almost any physician can fill a flight surgeon billet except for pathologists, radiologists, and radiation oncologists?
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I had to look this up recently. Any physician can be a flight/battalion/brigade surgeon, as can a pharmD (seriously). There are some AOCs that can't be PROFIS'd to an operational slot, but any MC officer can be assigned (PCS'd) as one. And they've even done exceptions to policy regarding PROFIS.
Bottom line #1: no specialty can protect you from these assignments; only being considered "undermanned", which is so arbitrarily determined that it's a worthless metric. Bottom line #2: they can and will violate their own regulations whenever they see fit, but you had better toe the line perfectly if you want to so much as go on leave.
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We can probably expect the enumerated "needs" of the military to change substantially in the next few years, based on the new metrics to be employed soon.
From a recent email from my specialty leader:
Emphasis mine.
As for specific numbers ... he went on to note that the proposed change was to increase the number of Navy anesthesiologist billets from 124 to 189 by FY2019. Presumably there would be a corresponding decrease in specialties with less of a line/deployment presence.
Obviously the overall federal and military budgets are under some stress of late, and no plan survives first contact with the enemy, so I wouldn't make firm life choices based on the above plans. But as of now it is the service's plan going forward, and it even makes some logical and strategic sense (hooray!), so it probably deserves some consideration.
What I would take away from it is that people who are thinking they might want to enter via FAP in 5 or so years might want to have a non-military backup plan if they're heading for OB or derm or pediatrics, because the above implies that the military isn't anticipating a need to recruit you then.
From a recent email from my specialty leader:
Emphasis mine.
As for specific numbers ... he went on to note that the proposed change was to increase the number of Navy anesthesiologist billets from 124 to 189 by FY2019. Presumably there would be a corresponding decrease in specialties with less of a line/deployment presence.
Obviously the overall federal and military budgets are under some stress of late, and no plan survives first contact with the enemy, so I wouldn't make firm life choices based on the above plans. But as of now it is the service's plan going forward, and it even makes some logical and strategic sense (hooray!), so it probably deserves some consideration.
What I would take away from it is that people who are thinking they might want to enter via FAP in 5 or so years might want to have a non-military backup plan if they're heading for OB or derm or pediatrics, because the above implies that the military isn't anticipating a need to recruit you then.
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Well said, pgg. However, you assume that the military could actually recruit physicians in those specialties you mentioned with "low op tempo." I can only speak for my own specialty (ENT) but the military doesn't pay GS physicians worth a s..t, which is why no self-respecting US-trained otolaryngologist would ever sign on. I have only heard of 1 civilian ENT in my entire army career work for the military as a GS employee and that was because he had a DUI conviction and couldn't get hired anywhere else (other than the VA) in the US. Contract jobs pay more but most specialists do not want the high-degree of uncertainty (especially in these times) that comes with a contract position. If the military was willing to hire FMIGs and specialists with shady pasts they could probably make it work but other than that, good luck.
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Those are good points.
It's also worth remembering that the other large scale medical corps re-billeting plan the Navy has undertaken hasn't gone quite as planned. I'm talking about replacing post-intern GMOs with BE/BC physicians, of course. When I first talked to a Navy MC recruiter in 1997 the grand plan was to phase out 1-year-wonder GMOs rapidly. There has been some progress on that front, but here we are 16 years later and it's not even 1/2 done.
If anything, MEDMACRE is even more ambitious. I doubt the Navy would have much trouble finding contractors to fill the civilian non-deployable spots in OB, peds, path, etc. The hard part will be expanding the AD ranks of war-critical specialties, which heavily overrepresent surgical subspecialties where high pay is the norm on the outside.
Anesthesia might be the easiest field to get in line with the higher MEDMACRE numbers. We're already way over current manning authorizations (I think 170-something of us on AD now ... not far off the 2019 MEDMACRE goal) and we have idle inservice residency capacity. Navy anesthesia has actually cut residency spots in recent years due to perceived lack of need. Should be easy enough to add those spots back again, and there are plenty of applicants each year.
A harder question is where the Navy's going to get extra neurosurgeons ... and what they're going to DO with them at MTFs when we're not at war.
It's also worth remembering that the other large scale medical corps re-billeting plan the Navy has undertaken hasn't gone quite as planned. I'm talking about replacing post-intern GMOs with BE/BC physicians, of course. When I first talked to a Navy MC recruiter in 1997 the grand plan was to phase out 1-year-wonder GMOs rapidly. There has been some progress on that front, but here we are 16 years later and it's not even 1/2 done.
If anything, MEDMACRE is even more ambitious. I doubt the Navy would have much trouble finding contractors to fill the civilian non-deployable spots in OB, peds, path, etc. The hard part will be expanding the AD ranks of war-critical specialties, which heavily overrepresent surgical subspecialties where high pay is the norm on the outside.
Anesthesia might be the easiest field to get in line with the higher MEDMACRE numbers. We're already way over current manning authorizations (I think 170-something of us on AD now ... not far off the 2019 MEDMACRE goal) and we have idle inservice residency capacity. Navy anesthesia has actually cut residency spots in recent years due to perceived lack of need. Should be easy enough to add those spots back again, and there are plenty of applicants each year.
A harder question is where the Navy's going to get extra neurosurgeons ... and what they're going to DO with them at MTFs when we're not at war.
So are IM residents able to get incentives as flight surgeons?
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Residents, no. Staff serving in a flight surgery billet, yes.
So IM residents cant get STRAP or loan repayment?
