Basics of Military Medicine?

[communitysjw1996]

Starting MD this summer and have a couple basic questions about MM:

(1) How do military residencies work? Are you limited to military residencies? What actually IS a military residency?

(2) You then have to serve 4 years AFTER residency, right? This means you could go anywhere in the world? What happens after those 4 years? Can you just go back into being a regular civilian doctor or am I still tied to the military?

Thank you

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[YouEverHadOurSausages?]

1.) military residencies are pretty much the same as civilian residencies, except they take place at a military hospital of your branch. Some say there is less acuity/variability in military residencies because in general the patient population tends to be a little healthier. However, most mil residencies have rotations at civilian hospitals as well. Overall, quality between the average civilian residency and military residency is comparable. You are essentially limited to a military residency. On rare occasions you will be able to defer to a civilian residency but as I said this is rare, and branch-dependent.

2.) You owe the military 1 year for every year of medical school they pay for AND 1 year for every year of residency. However, you can pay these back at the same time. To put it simply, you owe them for as many years as either med school or residency, whichever is longer. Once you’ve paid back your time you are free and no longer associated with the military unless you want to sign back up. As far as pay back goes, if you are genuinely interested in HPSP, do a little research on GMO tours as well.

 

[communitysjw1996]

1.) military residencies are pretty much the same as civilian residencies, except they take place at a military hospital of your branch. Some say there is less acuity/variability in military residencies because in general the patient population tends to be a little healthier. However, most mil residencies have rotations at civilian hospitals as well. Overall, quality between the average civilian residency and military residency is comparable. You are essentially limited to a military residency. On rare occasions you will be able to defer to a civilian residency but as I said this is rare, and branch-dependent.

2.) You owe the military 1 year for every year of medical school they pay for AND 1 year for every year of residency. However, you can pay these back at the same time. To put it simply, you owe them for as many years as either med school or residency, whichever is longer. Once you’ve paid back your time you are free and no longer associated with the military unless you want to sign back up. As far as pay back goes, if you are genuinely interested in HPSP, do a little research on GMO tours as well.

I thought you owe the military service exclusively for each year of med school?

So what you’re saying is that if I do 4 years school and 4 years residency, I owe 8 years of service?

 

[YouEverHadOurSausages?]

I thought you owe the military service exclusively for each year of med school?

So what you’re saying is that if I do 4 years school and 4 years residency, I owe 8 years of service?

Yes but as I said, you can pay them back at the same time. Which means your 1st year working as a physician is actually payback for your first year of med school and your first year of residency. Your second year as a doctor is payback for your 2nd year of med school and your 2nd year of residency, etc. so if you did a 4 year residency, it ends up taking 4 years to pay back. But a 5 year residency would take 5 years to pay back.

 

[AirBlizzard]

Gonna paste this quote from Perrotfish in the Military Medicine forum.

Still not exactly. The rule is that the length of time you owe coming out of residency is either the length of time you owed on the day you go into residency, or the length of residency, whichever is more. Also intern years don't count, only the rest of residency

If you have a 4 year HPSP obligation and do a 3 year straight through FM residency your obligation from HPSP (4 years) is greater than your obligation from residency (2 years) so you come out owing 4 years. 3 years training + 4 years payback = 7 total years in the military

If you have a 4 year HPSP obligation and do a 6 year general surgery residency (Intern year + research year + 4 residency years) then your obligation from residency (5 years) is greater than your obligation from HPSP (4 years) and youcome out of residency owing 5 years. 6 years residency + 5 years payback = 11 years in the military

If you have a 4 year HPSP obligation, do a general surgery intern year, and payback 3 years as a flight surgeon you now owe one year. Then if you go into a 5 year general surgery Residency (4 years training + 1 year research) your obligation from residency (5 years) is greater than what you owed when you started residency (1 year) so you will owe 5 years. When you get out you still owe 5 years at the end of residency, just like if you'd trained straight through. So now 1 Intern year + 3 years flight surgery + 5 years training + 5 years paybacck = 14 years in the military.

A GMO tour + a long residency can leave you stuck in the military for a very long time.

.

 

[daw05]

Read this. You can DM me with questions if you wnat.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

On rare occasions you will be able to defer to a civilian residency but as I said this is rare, and branch-dependent.

Branch, specialty, and year dependent. Even USUHS sent 10 people to civilian programs last year, which is a big number for us.

 

[SweetBurger]

Read this. You can DM me with questions if you wnat.

sorry for bumping an old thread. does something like this exist for the AF

 

[daw05]

sorry for bumping an old thread. does something like this exist for the AF

I don't know, sorry. It did seem when I was searching I found more AF stuff than Army. Try googling a bit, or this website might have some info for you:

HPSP Fact Sheet

www.airforcemedicine.af.mil