How tough is it to get a residency at Tripler Army Hospital in General Surgery or Family Medicine?

[YankeesfanZF5]

Hello,

I am applying for the HPSP for the army after being accepted to a US MD school. The location of Tripler would be wonderful for residency. From reading on the forum, you go where the army wants you to go. I do have an interest in primary care and general surgery and I know they offer military residencies pertaining to these specialities. I was wondering if anyone had any experience having their residency at Tripler? Any place to find accepted USMLE scores, grades, requirements, etc. I have am extremely interested in being an Army physician but I am researching all the opportunities that the army has to offer before I commit. I have had negative feedback from friends and family about applying for military medicine. The end game after serving would be to do short-term medical missions and work for a hospital back home. I believe the Army would provide a great education for this. Any advice is much appreciated. Thank you.

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[Atlas Shrugged]

You would think Tripler is very popular/highly sought after, but it is a polarizing duty station. In a lot of ways it is like being in a foreign country. You are far from family on the mainland if that matters to you, so grandma and grandpa can't watch small children. If you have a civilian spouse work can be extremely difficult to find, even with advanced degrees. It is expensive and traffic is awful.

It's also incredibly beautiful and you will enjoy your one day off a week for intern year. You will be the best paid intern and resident in the world.

For family medicine, if you have no red flags (step failures, awful to work with) and rank Tripler number one, you are almost guaranteed to match (99.9%, always an exception). Even a single step failure is not necessarily going to mean you won't match as long as you can explain it and have a good track record since.

For general surgery across the entire army the mean step 1 was 234 (ranged 200-259). If you get around there and are a pleasure to work with, your odds of matching are good.

Both programs are excellent, and the current attendings in each are more than willing to teach. Family medicine you can expect to be nice most anywhere you go, but the surgeons at TAMC seem a lot happier than other hospitals I've rotated at. I can't speak to surgery's overall volume and what is/is not adequate.

Also, you MUST perform an interview rotation (one month) no matter what specialty/location you end up deciding to choose. If you do not, your chances of matching a specific program are incredibly unlikely. This must be done before the match which occurs earlier than the civilian match.

 

[DD214_DOC]

You would think Tripler is very popular/highly sought after, but it is a polarizing duty station. In a lot of ways it is like being in a foreign country. You are far from family on the mainland if that matters to you, so grandma and grandpa can't watch small children. If you have a civilian spouse work can be extremely difficult to find, even with advanced degrees. It is expensive and traffic is awful.

It's also incredibly beautiful and you will enjoy your one day off a week for intern year. You will be the best paid intern and resident in the world.

For family medicine, if you have no red flags (step failures, awful to work with) and rank Tripler number one, you are almost guaranteed to match (99.9%, always an exception). Even a single step failure is not necessarily going to mean you won't match as long as you can explain it and have a good track record since.

For general surgery across the entire army the mean step 1 was 234 (ranged 200-259). If you get around there and are a pleasure to work with, your odds of matching are good.

Both programs are excellent, and the current attendings in each are more than willing to teach. Family medicine you can expect to be nice most anywhere you go, but the surgeons at TAMC seem a lot happier than other hospitals I've rotated at. I can't speak to surgery's overall volume and what is/is not adequate.

Also, you MUST perform an interview rotation (one month) no matter what specialty/location you end up deciding to choose. If you do not, your chances of matching a specific program are incredibly unlikely. This must be done before the match which occurs earlier than the civilian match.

This pretty much covers it. I enjoyed my time there quite a bit .... up until the 3.5 year mark. My last 1.5 years there wasn't very enjoyable, as I finally got tired of all the things pointed out above.

 

[colbgw02]

Ditto. My entire perception of living out there changed when I had my first kid. In a moment, being 4000K miles away from family became a really big deal, and the small, but still very expensive, condo became very cramped.

 

[Apollyon]

being 4000K miles away

That is 4 million miles away. I think you wanted one or the other.

 

[colbgw02]

i actually meant to say 4000K meters, but thanks for your helpful post