HPSP Psychatry

[omnipotentx]

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I'm going through the decision about going into HPSP program for medicine. I am not just doing it for the money so i dont need that lecture, but what I do need is someone to relate to me the experience of a psychiatrist: hours, issues with care, patient/dr ratio, being married, differences in dif branches, differences between other specialities, and any other pros/cons.

Thanks much,
Jeff
pre-med

 

[Neuronix]

Seems like they have a hard time with doctor/patient confidentiality: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,158000,00.html

In general also commanding officers may read their subordinates medical records. As far as I'm concerned, that would completely turn me off from doing anything in psychiatry in the military.

 

[R-Me-Doc]

I'm going through the decision about going into HPSP program for medicine. I am not just doing it for the money so i dont need that lecture, but what I do need is someone to relate to me the experience of a psychiatrist: hours, issues with care, patient/dr ratio, being married, differences in dif branches, differences between other specialities, and any other pros/cons.

Thanks much,
Jeff
pre-med

Military psychiatry = patient after patient after patient telling you "If they don't let me out of the Army/Navy/AF I'm going to kill myself."

Then, spending hours upon hours doing medical boards on the above patients for "adjustment disorder."

Now, with the war on Iraq, PTSD is a big one too, so you'd better have that one down cold.

You won't see too much interesting stuff like stark raving bonkers psychotics, and if you do, you won't do much about it because . . .

There is little inpatient care except at the largest medical centers; most smaller military hospitals don't have inpatient psych facilities and send patients to the nearest civilian facility.

Hours are not bad, especially call, since many places have "mental health techs" who are first call.

As in civiilian world, it's one of the lowest paying specialties, if that matters.

RMD 1-0-30

 

[omnipotentx]

I heard that psychiatrists in the army always get deployed, never in the navy (opposite of other specialties). is this true? and what about the air force?

Thanks
Jeff

 

[militarymd]

I heard that psychiatrists in the army always get deployed, never in the navy (opposite of other specialties). is this true? and what about the air force?

Thanks
Jeff

I was deployed to the Gulf in March of 2003....and guess who got sent along with us.....a psychiatrist.

 

[navysurgeon]

A good buddy of mine and room mate during med school was a year behind me in med school...we both did the navy HPSP thing...i did surgery and he went into psych...in the chaos of my internship year, i lost track of the guy...years later, last year actually, i was wondering what happened to my old buddy Dave, who went into Navy psychiatry under an HPSP...so what did I do? I did what any long-lost friend would do....I Googled him...and guess what I found...?

An interview transcript from the BBC, in Iraq, from 2004...my old buddy Dave was being interviewed on the front lines in Iraq, he was taking care of guys with PSD and other horrendous combat-related psychiatric afflictions out there, in the heat and stink of the desert...I emailed his unit, and have not hear back...maybe he's still out there.

So yes, military psychiatrists, especially tender, young ones, are deployable.

Avoid military medicine.

TNS

 

[GMO_52]

I heard that psychiatrists in the army always get deployed, never in the navy (opposite of other specialties). is this true? and what about the air force?

Thanks
Jeff

No one in the Navy ever deploys. Its great!

Seriously, there's a psychologist floating with us at the moment. The big problem with military psych is that you don't get to treat pts for any length of time. If they are sick enough to need that, bye bye military. 1910-120 of the milpersman will be your special friend.

 

[omnipotentx]

No one in the Navy ever deploys. Its great!

Seriously, there's a psychologist floating with us at the moment. The big problem with military psych is that you don't get to treat pts for any length of time. If they are sick enough to need that, bye bye military. 1910-120 of the milpersman will be your special friend.

I'm guessing you're being sarcastic, but I've been told that psychiatrists usually aren't. Second, psychologists are not M.D.s and doesnt apply to my ?. Plus, I have no idea what you are trying to say in that last sentence.

Please clarify,

-Jeff

 

[GMO_52]

I'm guessing you're being sarcastic, but I've been told that psychiatrists usually aren't. Second, psychologists are not M.D.s and doesnt apply to my ?. Plus, I have no idea what you are trying to say in that last sentence.

Please clarify,

-Jeff

Sorry, having a rough day and navy psych is irritating me at the moment. There are lots of forward deployed psychiatrists, its a part of military doctrine to treat combat stress (shell shock, battle fatigue, same difference) as close to the front as possible to allow for a rapid return to duty. The only way to do that is to have the psychiatrists close to the front. Our group happens to have a psychologist billet rather than a pyschiatrist, but that varies. The Milpersman is what governs all military personnel matters and 1910-120 is the section on administrative separation for medical stuff (maybe 50% of the folks I've referred to psych off of my ship have been separated under this section for PD).