GMO and out into psych tips

[kingofdrip]

Long thread. Like the title, I'm a HPSP GMO who is getting out next year and way too late decided to try to go into psych. Brief background, graduated US MD 2020, average ROAD background, average step 1/2 scores, below avg step 3, no fails or other academic/professionalism concerns, ended up with civilian TY just had a bad year then GMO assigned to the MTF doing .5 FTE for the last few years, with the odd TDY here and there, immediately found out I'm getting out as my first priority, residency second, so military GME is a no go. For those that would know, my job code is for a residency trained doctor, but military can't always get what it wants so they put me there. Thankfully no one got hurt... Anyways, the other GMOs I worked with all went into IM/FM so I was leaning on IM, but for various reasons, psych has been a growing interest this year. I honored my psych rotation in med school, but other than that, no 4th year electives or anything. One my attendings in school offered to write a letter for back then, which they actually wrote since they were hoping I'd change my mind, along with the course director lol. I work with a psychiatrist at my current assignment who is supportive of my goal, sees how many people I manage to keep out of the mental health clinic, and my TY director wrote me a letter hoping I wouldn't GMO, so letters I should be good on.

That said, I'm looking to see what I have to do now to have the best chance applying to psych. I see other stories on this forum for other fields, but none for psych. Some programs I look at say being over x years out of school won't be considered (others I've seen with that qualification do specify exceptions for military service) so I'm planning to email PCs describing my situation to see if my application would be considered. I'm fully set on getting out of the military and I'm pushing the button next month. Not matching and separating is a real concern, to that I'm planning to also apply IM as back up, and I worked with a contractor who didn't complete residency but has been getting contractor gigs with the government who would hook me up with the agency (there was talk of me deploying this fall which would be during interview season really screwing me, but that got cancelled), and allegedly I'm hearing I can withdraw my separation if I end up not matching and stay in. I have an enlisted patient who did a SHPE but if his outside job doesn't work out, plans to extend enlistment, admin ppl I work with are saying that's a thing. I have a meeting with my commander next month for the separation brief to go over that.

I appreciate any advice anyone can give me, any success stories, or tips on what to do with my limited time to strengthen my application. Besides seeing patient's. I browsed this forum years ago when I got into school and saw all the don't take HPSP posts, which I wished I really considered more back then, and things are probably worse now in milmed.

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[DOswag]

I don't know if I have much advice for you in regards to how to improve your application. That part will be difficult just because of being a gmo, continuing to work and then outprocessing from the military etc. There's certainly plenty of examples of people who have done gmo and gotten out to go into a number of different specialties on the civ side. I was deferred to a civ TRI as I first applied to EM in the mil match and didn't match. Then reapplied psych and got in. Some programs are better about taking into account this time period for you as a positive, being a more well rounded applicant, some experience of practicing autonomously and such and showing effort to get experience in whatever field you're interested in. You will be asked about why you wanted to go into psych as opposed to what you originally applied for but as long as you have sound reasoning to justify your interest in psychiatry that will be fine. The program I went to had some people who transferred from other residency programs or even one doc who was a pediatrician and practiced in the AF for a few years then came back to psych residency. Typically you'll come in as a PGY-2 since you have completed an intern year but they will alter your PGY-2 schedule to incorporate some of the rotations from psych intern year which typically is heavy on acute inpatient. PGY-2 typically is more consult service rotations at least that's how ours was setup. Then PGY-3 you'll do almost completely outpatient, then PGY-4 is glorious before getting out to full practice which is even better. Good luck to you going forward!

 

[comp1]

Aw, I sure hope you can match in psych. It seems doable. I don't think many programs would fault you exactly for the time since med school. You've been doing at least medical adjacent stuff and I do think most programs respect time in the military. The slight challenge is that completed transitional year since it does require special balancing (and maybe even funding) on the part of the program to take you in as a PGY-2 or to have you complete essentially five years of GME. There are a very limited number of PGY-2 slots and you should try for those, but also apply broadly to the four year programs.