Hey guys, I'm a 1st year ER resident in Little Rock. As far as I know, my application is almost approved for the FAP program. I have a good deal of questions I'm hoping you guys can answer.
1) is it possible for a non military residency trained doc to get stationed at either of the 2 european bases on their first tour?
2) at your ERs, can you comment on things like volume, acuity, average patients per shift, ER doc coverage, sub specialty backup, etc.
3) dumb question, but do you wear scrubs or do you have to be uniformed?
4) the 24h notice of deployment is a little scary, anyone else have similar/different experiences?
5) while deployed, can anyone comment on where they went, and similar comments as in question 2, and additionally, average shifts per week/hours while over there.
6) can anyone comment on availability of moonlighting opportunities around where they are and how often your regular shifts allow it.
I'm sure I'll have more questions later. I appreciate everyones time. Thank you.
1) Very unlikely, but not impossible. Lakenheath is the more likely option. I'd expect Keesler or similar. If you want to control this, join AFTER residency rather than FAP.
2) Back up is fine, volume is high to very high, acuity is low to very low, my coverage is single to triple (counting PAs), back up is better than average. We ideally have 40-48 hours of provider coverage per day and tend to see 90-120 patients per day, so ~ 2 pph. Of course, right now we're running with about 36 hours of provider coverage due to deployments, that's more like 3 pph. And given that the place is dead between 2 and 6 am, that's 10 more patients you can expect to see on the day shift. I'd say expect 25-35 patients on a 12 hour day shift, maybe 20 on a 12 hour night shift. Less if you're working 8s.
3) No dumb questions. Official policy is you wear the uniform of the day in, then hospital scrubs if you please. In reality, I wear my own scrubs in and no one says anything. Of if I feel like it, I just work the shift in BDUs, even if it is a blues day. Not a big deal at this base, but can be at larger MTFs.
4) Sorry deployments scare you. You REALLY need to be willing to deploy with little notice as you probably will once in a four year career. "A Lot" of notice is 1-2 months, but with the band system you have a year's notice or so in the ideal world.
5) Deployed situations vary. You can have low volume-low acuity, high volume-low acuity, high acuity-low volume, and very rarely high volume-high acuity. Both of my deployments were low volume-low acuity. My most recent one involved 10 outpatient providers seeing 250 patients in the course of 14 days. That worked out to what...2 per day per person (we weren't given days off despite the volume). In my experience, providers are generally over-deployed. But I know someone out right now who was deployed with 3 emergency docs, one of which went home early for some reason so now one works every day and the other works every night for the last couple months of their deployment. So it can really vary. You are the military's biatch and you will do what they tell you to do. Be okay with that or you will be miserable. So expect anywhere from 15-30 12-hour shifts per month while deployed, probably with less than 2 patients per hour.
6) I expect my docs to moonlight and all of them do. 2-4 shifts a month is typical. I'd say less than 2 and you're losing skills. YMMV. This area has 6 or 8 hospitals that are willing to have us come work for them. Typical rate is $150 per hour (independent contractor.)
