Navy HPSP and the Navy (Questions about GMO)

[cali_student]

Hi everyone, I'm currently applying this cycle to medical school, and I'm interested in serving via the Navy through the HPSP scholarship. I do intend on doing a lifelong career in the military but I am interested in serving for four years. I had a few questions specifically about this opportunity and I was hoping some people could answer my questions.

1) does doing a GMO tour for a year and then doing a residency add onto the years needed to be fulfilled. say I do 1 year as a GMO and then I get into a cardiothoracic residency which is 1 intern year and 5 residency years. Would I have to pay back a total of 5 years? Also would serving post-residency for four years fulfill the requirement for both.

2) If I wanted to do 4 years as a GMO and then match to a civilian residency is it possible to get a GMO tour of 4 years or would they make me participate in the military match after 3 years

3) I am interested in being deployed to a place like Afghanistan during a GMO. Would it be possible to work in a field hospital attached to a marine unit so I could get exposure to emergency medicine and possibly trauma surgery?

4) Why Navy HPSP and not Army or Air Force?

Thank you for all the help!

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[ArmyTiger]

Hi everyone, I'm currently applying this cycle to medical school, and I'm interested in serving via the Navy through the HPSP scholarship. I do intend on doing a lifelong career in the military but I am interested in serving for four years. I had a few questions specifically about this opportunity and I was hoping some people could answer my questions.

1) does doing a GMO tour for a year and then doing a residency add onto the years needed to be fulfilled. say I do 1 year as a GMO and then I get into a cardiothoracic residency which is 1 intern year and 4 residency years. Would I have to pay back a total of 4 years? Also would serving post-residency for four years fulfill the requirement for both.

2) If I wanted to do 4 years as a GMO and then match to a civilian residency is it possible to get a GMO tour of 4 years or would they make me participate in the military match after 3 years

3) I am interested in being deployed to a place like Afghanistan during a GMO. Would it be possible to work in a field hospital attached to a marine unit so I could get exposure to emergency medicine and possibly trauma surgery?

4) Why Navy HPSP and not Army or Air Force?

Thank you for all the help!

1) Intern year is a free training year. You don't add or subtract from it. If it's a categorical position, it's residency years - 1. But you may want to check your facts, cardiothoracic surgery is 0+6 or 5+2, usually.

2) you can be GMO as long as you want.

3) YMMV.

 

[SirGecko]

Hi everyone, I'm currently applying this cycle to medical school, and I'm interested in serving via the Navy through the HPSP scholarship. I do intend on doing a lifelong career in the military but I am interested in serving for four years. I had a few questions specifically about this opportunity and I was hoping some people could answer my questions.

1) does doing a GMO tour for a year and then doing a residency add onto the years needed to be fulfilled. say I do 1 year as a GMO and then I get into a cardiothoracic residency which is 1 intern year and 5 residency years. Would I have to pay back a total of 5 years? Also would serving post-residency for four years fulfill the requirement for both.

2) If I wanted to do 4 years as a GMO and then match to a civilian residency is it possible to get a GMO tour of 4 years or would they make me participate in the military match after 3 years

3) I am interested in being deployed to a place like Afghanistan during a GMO. Would it be possible to work in a field hospital attached to a marine unit so I could get exposure to emergency medicine and possibly trauma surgery?

4) Why Navy HPSP and not Army or Air Force?

Thank you for all the help!

1. You do a GMO after intern year not before. The initial intern year doesn’t add to your commitment but if you matched an residency that requires repeating intern year after a GMO tour it would add an extra year to your commitment. Residency also adds one year for every year of residency. (Residency is paid off concurrently with the HPSP commitment)

2. Yes you can GMO and out. You would do intern year then four years as a GMO.

3. People deploy as a GMO but you won’t typically be helping with trauma surgery. I have never been to Afghanistan though so I would defer to someone who has to give you a better idea of what to expect.

4. Because you want to be in the Navy? I like the Navy at baseline but the Navy has been kind of hurting itself lately on allowing me to push joining the Navy over the Air Force or Army what with making promotions harder than the others and not having as much opportunity for fellowship training.

 

[rockafella12]

If you're more specific about your reasons for joining, we can probably give you better advice.
1. As above, intern year is a "dead year" as far as payback goes.
2. "GMO & GTFO" is probably the most common career path in Navy Medicine. You *can* participate in the mil match if you want to, but you'd have to have some pretty special reasons to keep giving time to the Navy after your payback is complete.
3. You don't get to choose where you deploy. You might have a little say in which Command you join, but even then Navy is moving to a sort of "match" for the interns going to GMO. No more phone calls & first come first serve stuff.

4. Army & AF both have better options for Docs right now. Navy is really behind the times in terms of GME, and a lot of interns & GMOs are getting shafted right now.

 

[Kingfisher]

Hi everyone, I'm currently applying this cycle to medical school, and I'm interested in serving via the Navy through the HPSP scholarship. I do intend on doing a lifelong career in the military but I am interested in serving for four years. I had a few questions specifically about this opportunity and I was hoping some people could answer my questions.

1) does doing a GMO tour for a year and then doing a residency add onto the years needed to be fulfilled. say I do 1 year as a GMO and then I get into a cardiothoracic residency which is 1 intern year and 5 residency years. Would I have to pay back a total of 5 years? Also would serving post-residency for four years fulfill the requirement for both.

2) If I wanted to do 4 years as a GMO and then match to a civilian residency is it possible to get a GMO tour of 4 years or would they make me participate in the military match after 3 years

3) I am interested in being deployed to a place like Afghanistan during a GMO. Would it be possible to work in a field hospital attached to a marine unit so I could get exposure to emergency medicine and possibly trauma surgery?

4) Why Navy HPSP and not Army or Air Force?

Thank you for all the help!

Referring to doing your GMO and then out: One thing to think about is your comfort and knowledge with inpatient and ICU services. When you go GMO you do a lot of admin navy crap that you mostly have to learn on the fly as well as some fun stuff but the further you get from the hospital and the ICU the less you feel comfortable you feel about jumping back into it. I have met a ton of GMOs that were very apprehensive about getting back into the thick of stuff right away after being out of the hospital for a long period of time.

Also, the longer you are out of the typical residency track the less desirable you can appear to the more competitive Navy specialties. I have seen a number of folks spend 4 or more years as a GMO and have difficulties getting into Navy specialties. I have seen some folks do well going civilian after their GMO tour is paid back. I wouldn't spend more years as a GMO than the payback because we typically see it as a red flag when someone has been a GMO for longer than that.