GMO and out - residency application vibes

[SirDeathKnight]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Howdy!

I'm a 3rd year HPSP and after completing rotations I've figured out the only place for me in medicine is surgery.
After reading a whole bunch of posts here about atrophy and such my plan when I apply to match in a year is: surgery intern year + 4 years gmo/omo/w/e-o then apply residency after service is done.

My question is if some of the more compeitive surgical subspecialities would look down on having served instead of just being 100% focused on surgery?
I've really enjoyed some of the endovascular procedures and new technologies coming out but would still want to have skills for open (ie vascular surg).

So does anyone have thoughts on the perception post service? Bascically should I just try for GS in Navy then serve/atrophy and then fellowship after service, or could I get away with GMO, do research, (try to) get involvement in field, networking, good step 2 etc, and apply residency after and still be seen as competitive despite not being "all in" from the beggining? I know vascular fellowships not too hot atm, but I'm interested in those 5-6 year integrated residencys with lots of endo exposure that I've heard are very competitive.

Thanks for any guidance!

 

[Ziehl-Neelsen]

Not a surgeon.

Every general surgeon I've known had his or her pick of civilian surgical fellowship after fulfilling the initial ADSO after residency--and these were prestigious fellowships like CT at Vanderbilt, bariatric and minimally invasive at U Washington, etc. There may be some skill atrophy during your ADSO utilization after residency, but civilian program directors looked favorably on a surgeon who had proven his or her mettle, knew how to operate, was more mature/experienced, and had served in the military. Any skill atrophy during your GS payback would be more than compensated for by the operative caseload in fellowship, and there'd be no worries about skills gained in fellowship atrophying in the military after fellowship as you could move straight into your practice of choice after civilian fellowship.

I'd worry that applying to a surgical residency after a 4 year interlude as a GMO would make PDs worry if you could hack it in a surgical residency having been out of the GME pipeline for a couple of years and your choice of residency would be more limited.

You'd certainly have a longer route to your end-state surgical life of choice by completing a GS residency and payback in the military, but financially you'll be better off having drawn an attending salary during your payback prior to civilian fellowship, and you'll have more experience/insight as to what you want your professional life to look like after having been a general surgeon for a couple years (many find that what they think they want with regard to subspecialty training as a medical student/resident changes significantly after having worked as an attending for a number of years--I certainly found that to be the case).

I'd talk to the surgical residency/fellowship PDs at your medical school and feel out how they'd view both prospective paths as a starting point and then start listing pros and cons of both pathways after I received their feedback. Good luck.