It is something to think about indeed. I have been accepted to an MD program and I have given it a lot of thought. This is where I stand. I have no issue with giving away any of my personal freedoms, or the money and benefits that go with a other forms of practice. For me the Army has been a good thing. I was a H.S flunk out with a 1.9 GPA and got in a lot of trouble. It wasnt until I got out that it all changed for me. I was only accepted into a college because I was a veteran. Things were never on the plate for me to pick and choose. Now I have that opportunity and it feels pretty good. Where I was at in the Army if there was something that I didnt like and it caused me stress, I changed it. I think that I can do that as a medical officer as well if that is the route that I should choose. I do value your opinion though, as well as Galo's and the others.
Thanks for the perspective and I will take it into consideration
As a navy flight surgeon (probably easy to guess from the name) who joined based on his father's HPSP experience and the recruiter's promise of good practice environment and, of course, the money, I have to say I regret my decision. Some of the reasons are on this thread already, and all of them are on the forum somewhere. I deployed with the USMC to Iraq, but work at an MTF stateside. My biggest complaint, far more important to me than the lack of choice in residency, is that no one who I don't know personally cares about my satisfaction with my job. Because of that every little thing that could give me job satisfaction (outside of taking good care of active duty Sailors, Marines and Air National Guardsmen ) goes the wrong way. I'm comfortable with finishing my GMO tour out and going to civilian residency. I appreciated the opportunity to take a break from the high-stress and long hours of medical school, internship and residency.
That being said, MilMed is not out there to support the physician in any way. The next two people in my chain of command are nurses (RN's), and don't really have a handle on what it means for a FS/GMO to work with minimal support, they just want me to create more RVU's (look it up, you'll be surprised to find a civilian billing term to be the basis of your annual evaluation, especially since WE DON'T CHARGE FOR OUR SERVICES).
I enjoyed my Marines, but I found out I was going 1 month after the command had identified that I was to go. They could have told me sooner, but didn't bother. They weren't being sneaky, they just didn't care enough to pass the news down. As it was, I barely had time to finish up my business (AHLTA notes, anyone) and take a week off before heading to the not-so-local USMC Base I spent 4 months at (seeing their sick call so the unit FS could show up late and work on transferring commands before the deployment) before deploying to Iraq.
It turns out Iraq was better than my current location, because I could order all the supplies I needed for my clinic. I could order whatever I wanted, no questions asked. Here I can't get a knee immobilizer without writing a prescription and placing a referral so a patient can pick one up on the economy. Sucks if the member is an E-3 living in the barracks without a car.
I got an email this week offering free training in how to do a "Root Cause Analysis." Why? Because in Navy Medicine West, it has been mandated that MTF's will do at least 2 in-depth Root Cause Analyses per quarter, whether needed or not. That kind of bureaucratic thinking pervades MilMed, at least the Navy side, and makes each day worse than it needs to be.
More than enough for now, but those are things you're recruiter will never tell you, but at least he cares about you more than your detailer
🙂
