Air Force Residencies

[bafanculo]

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Anyone know if the Air Force offers quality residency programs....i understood that if you do an HPSP scholarship, chances are you will end up in an Air Force residency.
Are all Air Force residencies the same?....besides the various locations they are offered at.
Does anyone know if Air Force residencies have a good rep compard to civilian residencies?

 

[bafanculo]

Just bumping my message back up to the top....maybe people will bite second time around.

 

[Jet915]

I dont know about the same but the Air Force does have alot of different specialties.....not as much as Army though. As for quality, I hear differing opinions. The bad being that they dont necessarily get a diverse patient load (in other words, you are caring for mostly military people who maybe on average healthier than the general population). The good is that the pay is higher (50,000 compared to maybe 35,000) and that there is more teaching compared to just working (although you might argue that you learn more if you work more). That's what I've heard.

Jetson

 

[Alli Cat]

Hey Jetson,

One thing I've been idly wondering is: do military residents work the crazy hours that civilian residents do? And when we become practicing physicians, are we on call 24 hours a day, or is it more like a military job that starts at 0730 and ends and 1630? I haven't heard anything about this, and I thought maybe you had...

~Alison

 

[cdreed]

Hi Alli!

I work at Wilford Hall (the top AF treatment facility). Residents around here work late hours after the attending and staff physicians have vacated the hospital. I do agree that a lot of teaching goes on here. Most of the menial scut work civilian residents do, like IVs and bloodwork, the technicians take care of in the military. It frees up more time for the docs to actually concentrate on physician duties.

Cyndi

 

[Caffeinated]

Originally posted by cdreed
Hi Alli!

I work at Wilford Hall (the top AF treatment facility). Residents around here work late hours after the attending and staff physicians have vacated the hospital. I do agree that a lot of teaching goes on here. Most of the menial scut work civilian residents do, like IVs and bloodwork, the technicians take care of in the military. It frees up more time for the docs to actually concentrate on physician duties.

Cyndi

Cyndi,

I didn't realize you work at Wilford Hall! That's cool! What do you do? You mentioned before that you were being deployed. Have you heard any news?

 

[Alli Cat]

Hi Cyndi,

It's so cool that you work in an AF medical treatment facility! It sounds like residency is long hours no matter which path you take 🙄 But it's cool to know you get to focus on learning how to be an effective doctor, and that you have good support staff. Do you ever end up talking to any residents about their experiences? Did many of them go to USUHS? I'm sure all the other USUHS hopefuls would love to ehar about what you see each day. I hope you get pulled off the waitlist this year!

Take care, Alison

 

[cdreed]

Alli and Caffeinated,

Yep, life around here is good. I have had only good experiences in the Air Force.

Presently, I am assigned to the Ambulatory Procedure Unit ("Same Day Surgery"). In effect, I get to see lots of surgeons of any subspecialty and their respective residents. Some of the docs are USUHS grads and some attended civilian schools. It seems that the docs from USUHS enjoy the military more than the others though. I think that USUHS grads have a better grasp of the military lifestyle and mindset.

On any given day, I see approx 50-60 pts with surgeries that range from opthamology procedures to gen surg to neuro... Wilford Hall is definitely the mecca of AF healthcare. The actual building is old, but the technology here is cutting edge.

So, I have been assigned to a mobility team that is due to deploy soon, if need be. The only way I can avoid this is to hear something definite about the HPSP or USUHS. I don't mind doing my job (I'm a med tech), but I'd really rather wait on the deployment until after med school so I don't have to defer matriculation for another year.

If any of you have specific questions about the AF medical service, I would be glad to answer what I can or refer to someone.

Sorry for the long post, and thanks for asking about my situation.

Cyndi 🙂

 

[bafanculo]

When you mean that Wolford Hall is the mecca of Air Force health care, you are saying that the other residency locations are bad...or they are just not as good as Wolford Hall.
How competitve if the program at Travis AFB?

 

[cdreed]

I just mean that Wilford Hall offers everything that the AF med service has to offer. With the other facilities, the training is just as good but more limited. Wilford Hall will receive pts from other AF medical treatment facilities that lack what the pts need.

I will probably do my residency at Travis, because Wilford Hall does not offer FP training. I am not distraught about that. AF training is top notch all the way around.

I am merely an enlisted med tech and I have received ACLS, PALS, and PHTLS training through the AF med service. The AF really wants all of its providers to get the education they desire. Of course, you only get out what you put in.

Cyndi

 

[Azalo]

I can only speak for Keesler AFB, but from talking with the doctors and residents that I work with the programs are not very strong here. Pediatrics in particular seems very weak. Internal Medicine seems OK but the program does not offer sufficient exposure to all the subspecialties, ie. no rheumatologist. SUrgery seems ok, the residents seem happy but at least at Keesler they see little to no trauma but I think they do a rotaion through Trinity in New Orleans. OB-Gyn, I dont have much experience with them but they dont seem very happy. The attendings that I talk to think the residents here are weak but for a few exceptions.

 

[burs0028]

I just found this on the Air Force website: looks like Wilford Hall is the place to be...

"Wilford Hall doctors place third in nation"
by Sue Campbell
59th Medical Wing Public Affairs
01/29/03 - LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFPN) -- The internal medicine residents at Wilford Hall Medical Center here know their stuff.

The National Board of Medical Examiners recently notified officials at the Air Force's medical flagship that their residents placed third out of 398 programs nationwide on their Medical Resident in Training examinations.

That result places them in the top 1 percent in the nation.

Wilford Hall's internal medicine residency program is one of four in the Air Force. Other programs are conducted at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio; Keesler AFB, Miss.; and Travis AFB, Calif. Wilford Hall's program is the largest with 47 residents enrolled this year -- about twice as many as the other programs.

"Each year, our faculty administers the MRIT examinations, which are practice tests for medical boards and self-assessment tools for residents to see what their strengths and areas of improvement are," said Col. (Dr.) Rick Downs, internal medical program director at Wilford Hall. "It's quite a credit to our teaching staff that we scored in the top 1 percent when you realize we're compared to medical programs such as Harvard."

There are about 60 faculty members on Wilford Hall's internal medicine residency team, and each resident spends three years in the program.

"The examination is a predictor of the residents' future success on their internal medicine boards," Downs said. "The results confirm our residents have extensive book knowledge of internal medicine when compared to the other 398 programs."

The Wilford Hall staff provides training in 45 specialties. The center's emergency medicine, ophthalmology and orthopedic residency programs scored in the top 5 percent nationwide during recent examinations. (Courtesy of Air Education and Training Command News Service)

 

[cdreed]

Wilford Hall is one of two level one trauma centers in San Antonio, so there is great training for EM and trauma related surgery.