GMO and Family

[navypending]

I decided to take Navy HPSP because I have a family, other issues, etc... etc...

I am having a very difficult time finding information regarding GMOs.

I knew by signing with the Navy there would be times when I would be in a ship and away from family.

But I cannot find the information regarding how long the GMO tours are and if I can take my family on them. I am guessing no on the hardship 1 year GMO tours.

Can anyone who is married give me some information about how likely and how long one is usually away from family?

If GMO tours are 2-3 years, I highly doubt that the entire GMO tour is on a ship and away from family... right?

Also high likely is one on a ship after residency and how long.

Thank you very much.

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[navypending]

Oh and Yes, Happy New Years everyone....! Not there yet, but Almost!!
Hopefully the Navy does away with 100 more GMO slots this year! fingers crossed!!!

 

[JackADeli]

Best wishes to you and your family and thank you for your services...

Hopefully the military will do away with GMO.... but, unfortunately, until it gets realistics with its recruitment and compensation, it will continue to have too much of a shortage and GMO will continue.... thus the points noted in the pros & cons threads/forum...

 

[blee]

There's a good amount of info on GMOs in this forum, but to summarize:

1) With the exception of internal medicine, family medicine, and OB/GYN, GMO tours are more the rule and not the exception. For example, out of a gen surg intern class of ~10 at Bethesda this year, one will be training straight through. This is typical in gen surg.

2) Most GMO tours these days are two years in length. 1-year "hardship" GMOs seem to be disappearing. Flight surgeon and dive medicine billets are more like three years long because of the training required before you can fill the billet.

3) Your typical GMO tour will be either with a ship or a Marine unit. Deployments last somewhere around 6-8 months. I believe most units deploy every 1-2 years. (I admit that I'm not entirely sure about that last statement.)

4) The 1-year GMOs notwithstanding, the bases to which you will be assigned for your GMO tour are generally stateside or in friendly ports abroad (for example, Naval Station Norfolk in VA or Camp Lejeune in NC). Your family is allowed to go with you.

5) Post-residency, I only have a little first-hand knowledge. From my observations, it looks like residency-trained Navy docs get assigned to hospitals either stateside or abroad, then deploy from there for the usual 6-9 month tour. I met attendings based out of Portsmouth who came back from 8 months in Iraq, and I met one who was assigned to the MTF on Guam for a year and deployed from there.

 

[IlDestriero]

There's a good amount of info on GMOs in this forum, but to summarize:

1) With the exception of internal medicine, family medicine, and OB/GYN, GMO tours are more the rule and not the exception. For example, out of a gen surg intern class of ~10 at Bethesda this year, one will be training straight through. This is typical in gen surg.

2) Most GMO tours these days are two years in length. 1-year "hardship" GMOs seem to be disappearing. Flight surgeon and dive medicine billets are more like three years long because of the training required before you can fill the billet.

3) Your typical GMO tour will be either with a ship or a Marine unit. Deployments last somewhere around 6-8 months. I believe most units deploy every 1-2 years. (I admit that I'm not entirely sure about that last statement.)

4) The 1-year GMOs notwithstanding, the bases to which you will be assigned for your GMO tour are generally stateside or in friendly ports abroad (for example, Naval Station Norfolk in VA or Camp Lejeune in NC). Your family is allowed to go with you.

5) Post-residency, I only have a little first-hand knowledge. From my observations, it looks like residency-trained Navy docs get assigned to hospitals either stateside or abroad, then deploy from there for the usual 6-9 month tour. I met attendings based out of Portsmouth who came back from 8 months in Iraq, and I met one who was assigned to the MTF on Guam for a year and deployed from there.

Here's a scary GMO reality for you. You could go to Guam, Japan, etc and than get almost immediately deployed. It happened to my former colleague. His family was back in the states after only 2 weeks in Japan, living with her parents. She didn't even unpack. He was deployed for 9-10 months. Another was sent to Guam, his wife was unwilling to go with the kids (3). Now she's the x-wife. Seemed to have a great marriage before the Guam thing. Another had a year in Cuba in enlisted family housing. There was no available O4/O5 family housing. They were in hell for a year. Enlisted family housing for 2 highly educated, conservative professionals and 3 bright kids is not ideal. I could go on, and on, and on...
If I were you, I would find another way to pay for school. Given the chance, I would never do it again, and I cought ALL the breaks and had a GREAT time. I am the exception. That's the reality of Navy GMO life.
It's not all bad, of course. Maybe you will be an exception too...
I love the Navy, but you have been warned.
Regards,

 

[trail doc]

Conventional wisdom used to be a "clinic" GMO assignment was safe from deployment. No longer true. Where I worked, the clinic guys were frequently deployed, so don't think if you're assigned to MCAS Miramar clinic that you're less likely to deploy than the guy in the next office who works for the fleet. That said, there are some assignments better than others if your desire is to stay out of deployment, and those are with units whose missions do not involve deployment. For example, the guy assigned to NAS Key West (not clinic KW) stayed home, as did the cadre of flight surgeons assigned to Naval Air Training (CNATRA). By and large the GMOs from my intern class were sent to a ship if they had 2 X chromosomes, and a Y sent you to FMF.

 

[jabreal00]

Why not do Army or Air force HPSP? The Army does not have this GMO billet if one has matched to their specialty. The Air force I think is also similar. Just a thought.

 

[Gastrapathy]

Why not do Army or Air force HPSP? The Army does not have this GMO billet if one has matched to their specialty. The Air force I think is also similar. Just a thought.

You just deploy in GMO billets after finishing specialty training.

Caveman...tap tap tap...

 

[trail doc]

You just deploy in GMO billets after finishing specialty training.

Caveman...tap tap tap...

There's the rub.

You can do a GMO or FS out of internship, make the most of it and move onto specialty training, or you can become an orthopedic surgeon and let your skills atrophy doing PHAs afterword. Worse than that, do internship, then residency in FP because there's no space in orthopedic surgery, and still wind up doing the same PHAs. Med students tend to think doing a GMO is a worst case scenerio, but I think getting rid of them will be even worse for your career. You'd might as well join the national health service corps.

 

[NoMoreAMCAS]

Which specialty would be best suited for a GMO tour? Perhaps ER doc, or Family Medicine? Why doesn't the military just increase the number of residency spots for the specialties that would best handle GMO tours (suffer the least skill atrophy)? It seems so much less would be lost during a GMO tour by an ER or FP doc, as opposed to some ortho or neuro surgeon.

 

[jabreal00]

---------------- Listening to: Boom Boom Satellites - Limbo via FoxyTunes

I don't know of many internist, FB, OB, or ER being sent as GMO billets after graduation. Sure they may go to small MTFs where their skills may languish (surgeons or procedurists). If you mean deploying after residency to OIF or OEF as a GMO then I agree. This is military wide. If anyone has issues with the deployment then they shouldn't join, period.

After residency, I was stationed at a small MTF in the Midwest as an internist. It was the loneliest and probably worst year of my life. I was however, practicing as an internist. I couldn't imagine doing what I was doing with just an internship. Or be doing what the GMO guy was doing, working at the warrior transition unit or the troop medical clinic. Those places were truly warehouses, where they would see 30-40 patients a day. Trust me plenty of bad medicine occured at those places on a daily basis because one year of training is not enough. Not to mention the place being staffed by overwhelmed PAs or FNPs.

I had at least enough sense to know when to push back and say when something was ridiculous. Plus there were some pretty sick patients who would occasionally come through and I was happy that I was residency trained and board certified to work them up and refer out to sub specialist (sick sinus syndrome needing pacemaker, HONK, pancreatic cancer, breast cancer, Pagets dz, acute hepatitis, new onset HIV, heroin withdrawal, small bowel obstruction etc) when needed. These were all patients who strolled through my clinic. I got out of there like a bat out of hell the chance that I got (fellowship).


---------------- Listening to: Kirsty Hawkshaw - Beautiful Danger via FoxyTunes

 

[Chonal Atresia]

Surgeons (i.e OB, ENT, Urology, Neurosurgery, Ortho and Gen Surgery) in the army CANNOT be deployed to OEF/OIF as GMOs (either 62B or 61N). It's part of AR 601-142 (PROFIS guidelines). Most ENTs and Urologists that I know have never been deployed and most never will be deployed. Medical subspecialists, on the other hand, can (and do) go as GMOs for up to a year. Moral of the story is if you really want to avoid deployment, do a surgical subspecialty in the army.