Air Force Physician

[yojoeshmoe]

Hey, there is probably already a post for this but anyway...
an air force rep came to our AMSA meeting today and was talking about all the benefits of becoming a doctor through the military (Air Force to be exact). It sounded really interesting because as you all prob know they will pay for your entire med school education and then you have to go through their residency. After that you just have to serve as a military doctor for 4 yrs to pay them back, but you enter as a Captain and are payed great too. Another plus is instead of making only 40K or so during residency, they pay you the same during residency as you make after it. Overall, It said with all the things they pay for and cover your salary is worth about $233,000 a year. Plus there were great benefits like no malpractice suits and housing and insurance and all that. ok now that i've rambled i just wanted to see what all of you think about going through the military like that. It sounds pretty cool to me especially not having to pay off loans once out of med school.

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[CptCrunch]

Check out the Military Medicine forum.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/forumdisplay.php?f=72

 

[DropkickMurphy]

I highly recommend you PM the member on here named "MedicalCorpse". He was an anesthesiologist that I worked with when I was in the Air Force and he can give you an honest assessment of how poorly the AF treats its docs and other health professionals. My other advice: learn to never trust anything a recruiter says. They have fewer morals than used car salesmen. It seems the recruiter left out about the high likelihood you won't wind up getting the residency you want, your commander (whom can and will dictate how things are run including patient care to a certain extent) will most likely be a nurse or physical therapist or something similar......etc etc ad nauseum

 

[Gut Shot]

My best friend's wife joined the Air Force as an M2, with the promise that she could pursue a civilian residency if she wanted. They paid for M2-M4 year and she agreed to a three year payback. Total savings: ~90K.

Flash forward to 2001. She's notified that she will, in fact, be doing an Air Force residency. Her specialty choice is OB/GYN, and she's placed in a highly malignant, little known military residency program with a largely inept support staff... for four years.

She's halfway through her payback now, making less than 100K workin' on the base. Total cost at the end of this adventure will be seven years of her life, God knows who much in lost income, and a larger portion of her sanity than she's willing to admit.