Do you see military medicine improving?

[Galo]

Short and long answer: NO. It will not get better. It will get worse. Plenty of explanation just on the first page of the forum.

I think if people really want to join out of the desire to serve our country that's noble and fine. As long as you know the multitude of pifalls and can adjust your expectations to them, then you may not be as dissapointed as many of us were expecting that we would be in a normal, dare say potentially superior medial system. In reality, its the pits.

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[John1513]

The advice on these threads are spot on.

The current Milmed system is not built for retention.

Leadership is not asking you for your point of view on how to improve Milmed - they are asking you why the Metrics are at 88% instead of 91%

To avoid falling into deep unhappiness, the young military doctor must remember “It is not about me.”

Thus, as Dr. Galo have said: be aware of the pitfalls and manage espectations.

 

[HighPriest]

The hard pill to swallow wasn’t usually “it isn’t about me,” it was “it isn’t about taking care of people.” You need to realize that you’re there to do maintenance on the fighting machine. Nothing else matters to the DoD. Period.

 

[Zulu451]

Unfortunately the way the big army treats medical components is the same way they treat an M1 Abrams. They think they caN stick you on the shelf and pull you off when they need you.

MEDCOM is mired down in their own metrics which they don’t even understand. The system is so broke and the emperor keeps strutting around in his new clothes while the fires are raging around them.

 

[militaryPHYS]

Maybe I am biased, but seems like there are more dissatisfied Army docs than Navy. Have ya'll discussed this previously (I'm sure you have) with people who have either done both or have direct comparisons to themselves in the opposite service during time at large MTF's?

 

[HighPriest]

Maybe I am biased, but seems like there are more dissatisfied Army docs than Navy. Have ya'll discussed this previously (I'm sure you have) with people who have either done both or have direct comparisons to themselves in the opposite service during time at large MTF's?

Yes. And no. Reading posts here for quite some time, I can only believe that Navy medicine is simply run much more efficiently. I doubt it’s perfect, but for a while I thought maybe some of the Navy guys were taking crazy pills before I saw the trend. Now I think everyone in milmed is taking crazy pills, but they’re just less necessary in the Navy.

 

[Perrotfish]

Yes. And no. Reading posts here for quite some time, I can only believe that Navy medicine is simply run much more efficiently. I doubt it’s perfect, but for a while I thought maybe some of the Navy guys were taking crazy pills before I saw the trend. Now I think everyone in milmed is taking crazy pills, but they’re just less necessary in the Navy.

My theory:

1) The GMO system effecitvely extends many physicians' obligation to the Navy
2) a longer effective inital obligation increases the percentage if physicians who stay for a career.
3) A greater number if a career physicians doing senior admin work makes the service slightly saner than it otherwise might be if MSC officers were filling those positions.

 

[HighPriest]

My theory:

1) The GMO system effecitvely extends many physicians' obligation to the Navy
2) a longer effective inital obligation increases the percentage if physicians who stay for a career.
3) A greater number if a career physicians doing senior admin work makes the service slightly saner than it otherwise might be if MSC officers were filling those positions.

Possibly. I’ve been at MTFs where most of the command were physicians. It still sucked.
I definitely agree that the more time someone spends “inside,” the more institutionalized they become and the less they remember what freedom smelled like.

 

[Atlas Shrugged]

Yes. And no. Reading posts here for quite some time, I can only believe that Navy medicine is simply run much more efficiently. I doubt it’s perfect, but for a while I thought maybe some of the Navy guys were taking crazy pills before I saw the trend. Now I think everyone in milmed is taking crazy pills, but they’re just less necessary in the Navy.

The GMO system is anything but efficient. I think only one peds intern was offered straight through training in the navy last cycle. That is absurd. About 50% of FM interns also became GMOs, which makes absolutely no sense.

 

[Perrotfish]

The GMO system is anything but efficient. I think only one peds intern was offered straight through training in the navy last cycle. That is absurd. About 50% of FM interns also became GMOs, which makes absolutely no sense.

Somebody has to do operational medicine. I think it causes less overall griping when the people doing the operational tours aren't board certified in a different skill set. Both options suck, but the GMO system probably sucks less.

 

[HighPriest]

The GMO system is anything but efficient. I think only one peds intern was offered straight through training in the navy last cycle. That is absurd. About 50% of FM interns also became GMOs, which makes absolutely no sense.

Then imagine how inefficient the Army must be.

 

[psychbender]

Somebody has to do operational medicine. I think it causes less overall griping when the people doing the operational tours aren't board certified in a different skill set. Both options suck, but the GMO system probably sucks less.

GMO system probably sucks more for those that just aim to do their obligation and bail. Less likely to get tagged for a battalion surgeon position as a subspecialist if you leave right after your first utilization tour after residency.


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[Gastrapathy]

GMO system sucks more for the patients