If you can't go to OBC the first summer

[EMH]

I'm a post-m1, I'm considering the Army HPSP. If I pulled the trigger today I've been told I can make the July Board. This will mean it's too late to for me to get in OBC this summer and I sure don't want to spend my Step 1 study time in OBC instead of studying.

What do people do in this situation?

Thanks to those who help this forum. I'd be lost with out it.

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[psychbender]

...you can go some other summer. I was unable to attend OBC the first go-around, and I'm going to be there this summer (start of 4th year). Others put it off until after graduation (Tired did this). Still others have just not gone at all.

Your ADT before MS2 year should be spent at school, so you don't lose valuable Step I study time.

 

[LauraDO]

...you can go some other summer. I was unable to attend OBC the first go-around, and I'm going to be there this summer (start of 4th year). Others put it off until after graduation (Tired did this). Still others have just not gone at all.

Your ADT before MS2 year should be spent at school, so you don't lose valuable Step I study time.

you say that others have just not gone at all, does this mean they somehow got out of doing it completely?

 

[NavyFP]

Historically, I've been told that this was quite common. People put off going to ODS/OBC/COT while in med school (it's quite easy), then they go to residency, then no one wants to delay their service to send them to it . . .

Dunno about the other services, but the Navy has pretty much ended this practice, at least among those who are doing Navy internships. Now we are forced to go, even if it means getting to internship late. Not sure what the folks deferred to civilian programs do, since being late to internship is a much bigger deal outside the military programs.

Deferred students would go after residency. The requirement is that you do it prior to going to your first AD assignment.

 

[psychbender]

you say that others have just not gone at all, does this mean they somehow got out of doing it completely?

Yes. An Army Colonel came to my school a while back to talk about GME and answer various questions we had about HPSP and Army Medicine. One thing she said was that OBC is not necessarily a hard requirement, that people can opt not to go, and use some sort of constructive credit (gained by being active duty during residency/payback) to count toward whatever points you get in your file for having attended OBC. Because of that statement, one of my classmates who was going to attend OBC with us this summer decided not to go.

 

[bustbones26]

Yes. An Army Colonel came to my school a while back to talk about GME and answer various questions we had about HPSP and Army Medicine. One thing she said was that OBC is not necessarily a hard requirement, that people can opt not to go, and use some sort of constructive credit (gained by being active duty during residency/payback) to count toward whatever points you get in your file for having attended OBC. Because of that statement, one of my classmates who was going to attend OBC with us this summer decided not to go.

OBC "optional"?? Oh the funny things they tell you before you become property of the US Army. Here is my understanding, you may be in some sort of circumstance where you cannot attend OBC: academic, time conflict, etc. and that is not a problem, you just don't go. It DOES NOT affect your ability to do an ADT! That is ridiculous! I know that the HPSP handbook makes a big deal of this, stating that you cannot go on ADTs until you did OBC, but then when you go to Brooke, William Beaumont, Eisenhower, etc. you find that many civilian med students rotate through those hospitals, obviously, they didn't go to OBC!

If you have the time to go, I don't see how you can get out it, maybe I am wrong about this. I personally did not have the chance to go due to circumstances much like the person that started this tread. After completing two years of residency I applied for constructive service credit (CSC). In order to do so, you need to write a letter and have several people sign off on it. The DCCS at my hospital would not sign off, he stated that he felt that everybody needed to go to OBC. When this colonel came to your school to talk about it, did she mention this process? Obviously I was angry but somehow someway I sent in the papers and received CSC so I was happy about this. I fear to think that would have happened otherwise. I do know one person that did not get any CSC and he had to complete the regular 11 week OBC and delayed his PCS. Don't let that happen to you, the medical corp OBC is a picnic in comparison, why risk it?

My advice, if you can go, then go, save yourself the pain of applying for CSC, arguing with people, taking the chance of going to regular OBC, etc. etc. Just go. If you cannot go, apply for CSC while in residency and hope for the best.

 

[psychbender]

She didn't give specifics, just said that you had to apply for CSC. We're a year-round school, thus we couldn't go after MS1 or 2, and there are a handful of us that couldn't go before we started school. The one that decided not to go this year just decided that he could better use July as an ADT audition rotation.

We're not even losing vacation time for this, as we were able to convince our school officials to count one month of OBC as an elective rotation.

 

[bustbones26]

She didn't give specifics, just said that you had to apply for CSC. We're a year-round school, thus we couldn't go after MS1 or 2, and there are a handful of us that couldn't go before we started school. The one that decided not to go this year just decided that he could better use July as an ADT audition rotation.

We're not even losing vacation time for this, as we were able to convince our school officials to count one month of OBC as an elective rotation.

I am just sending out the warning to all who read this. When I was a med student and did not go to OBC I always asked about CSC and what to do. NOBODY ever had a straight answer and most would laugh it off, acting like getting CSC was a God given right to doctors. I am here to tell all readers that CSC anymore is not a God given right, they are getting pretty stingy about it anymore. Don't expect that it will be given to you. I know many senior officers that hold that attitude that "everybody must go to OBC" and would gladly deny you the right to CSC. Keep one philosophy in mind as you progress through your military career: NOTHING, and I do mean NOTHING is guaranteed and NOBODY can guarantee you ANYTHING!

I recall once at a residency interview that one clinic chief laughed it off and told me not to ever go to OBC stating that it would just be a six week separation from my wife. I have a three year payback comittment, she pointed out that if things worked out right, I probably would not have gotten picked up for promotion to major and spent one year getting paid as a captain before I would leave so who really cares? This is the furthest from the truth as possible. When you finish residency you are a moving target for deployment and this apparently can't happen without OBC so you will be forced to either go or apply for CSC and better hope that you are granted the CSC.