Army Fellowship Training and Army Reserve

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Luvshok

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I am 2nd year general surgery resident actively submitting for commission with the Army reserves. I’ve have been thinking about doing a trauma and critical care fellowship post Reaidency graduation, and with my understanding this really wouldn’t be a problem being in the reserve.

My question though, if I change my mind and decisive I want to do something like Transplant would I still be able to peruse fellowship training?

The reason I ask is I have heard you need permission from the army reserves because you are essentially delaying your ability to deploy and possibly taking further benefits during that time.

One can argue that a transplant fellowship would prepare you just as well, if not better for battlefield medicine given the complex dissections, mastery of anatomy needed, and broad spectrum of techniques used in transplant surgery.

Thanks I’m advance

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I can’t speak for the specifics of your question. I would only point out that the fact that “one could argue” something is utterly irrelevant to whether it is allowed.
 
You can do whatever you want in the Guard and Reserve. If you're not at drill or on orders, you're a civilian and in charge of your own destiny. You don't have an ask anyone for permission to do more training, change jobs, move, or quit and open up a coffee shop as long as you show up when you're supposed to.

The real issue is the reality of balancing a civilian career in something like transplant with your military obligations. Trauma and SICU are essentially shift work and many other surgical specialties have short enough follow-up periods and wide enough call pools to not be too much of an issue. As long as there are enough surgeons to comfortably cover you if you're away for training or get deployed, it will probably work. I'm not even a surgeon, so what do I know, but something like transplant seems more longitudinal and to be covered by a smaller group of surgeons. You would have to talk to a transplant surgeon to get a feel of how feasible it is to disappear for a few weeks of training or a few months of a deployment.
 
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