Army, Navy, or AF for Orthopedics

[DallasPreMed]

I've gotten so many conflicting opinions from this forum and from the Navy recruiter I have spoken to, maybe someone can offer some more clear advice.

Right now, I am deciding whether or not I will apply to the HPSP and, if so, which one. My ultimate goal is to be an orthopedic surgeon. I am being somewhat heavily recruited by the Navy because of my strong GPA and MCAT. Here are my questions about each branch.

Navy: My recruiter has told me many great things about Navy. One thing she said was Navy loves orthos and matching in an ortho residency is easier than matching in a civilian. Also, on this forum, I've read that Navy orthos can go straight through to residency and not do GMO. I have no problem doing a GMO, but if going straight through is a likely possibility, that could make a difference.

Army: All I know about Army, I've gathered from this site, so I should consider talking to an Army recruit as well. What I've read on here is that Army also loves orthos, and Army is much more likely than Navy to do a residency straight through and skip GMO. Others have also said that if specialization is important, Army is the way to go.

AF: Mostly, what I've gathered on here is that the AF life is somewhat less stressful, but AF likes general physicians and not specialists. Based on what I've read on here and on the actual military websites, I'm leaning heavily towards Army or Navy.

One last point, I've read that, going into a surgical specialty like ortho, it isn't financially beneficial to do the HPSP. I am not doing this for the money, I do have a desire to serve my country, build camaraderie, and travel.

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[J-Rad]

It's been a while since training in a Navy hospital, but as far as I know ortho continues to be once of those specialties in which it is rare to train straight through (i.e. almost everyone is required to do GMO time before being selected for ortho. IIRC, you can get selected for an ortho internship before GMO time) along with other super competitive specialties like ENT. Since I'm not Navy, I'll let those in the know speak more definitively. My sense from this board is that Army in not too dissimilar in this regard.

All the services have good ortho surgeons and all of their ortho surgeons will suffer when stationed at locations with low case volumes +/- poor leadership/command climates (as is the case for all specialties). All will do better when at the higher volume centers.

The competitiveness for ortho, I would imagine, compares to civilian residency when speaking from the perspective of graduation from medical school, but all services grant extra points on applications for those that have done GMO time.

 

[DrMetal]

It's been a while since training in a Navy hospital, but as far as I know ortho continues to be once of those specialties in which it is rare to train straight through

Is quite true.

If you're gunning for a competitive specialty, it might be best to avoid the military route. I say this b/c of the following logic: If a specialty is competitive in the civilian world, it stands to be more competitive in the military, because there are fewer programs/spots in the .mil. For instance, if you're in the Navy, seeking to become an Orthopod, you have x3 programs (say 6 spots/year) = 18 to 20 total ortho spots. Of course in the civilian world, you have many more programs, many more spots.

So if your goal is to get a Navy ortho spot straight through, you gotta be a stellar applicant (top 5% in your class, for instance). As a civilian, to get an ortho spot somewhere , it probably suffices to be top 10% or 15%.

And yes its true that in the Navy you can do a GMO tour to increase your chances of matching into ortho later, doing a GMO is not a guarantee that you'll eventually get the competitive specialty of your choice.

Anyway, moral of the story: if you're really considering a competitive specialty and think you have the aptitude to do well in medical school, I'd consider going the civilian route, getting trained, then joining the mil.