Joining as a 4th year med student? What program is best?

[emewe]

Hey everyone,

I've been searching the threads looking for answers but my situation seems a bit unique and I haven't really found anything recent that was definitively helpful.

I'm a 3rd year medical student, I want to do family medicine. My fiance is in the army (enlisted) and is thinking about commissioning as an officer. I really didn't know much about military options in medicine before but he had suggested that if he commissions I could join too and we could hopefully be stationed together. I looked into the various scholarship/loan repayment options as well as the army family medicine residencies and I was actually pretty impressed and intrigued by this option. My questions are 1) will I even be accepted into any of the med student programs this late in the game (previous posts suggested no) and 2) is it too late for me to join and be eligible for matching into an army residency (I'm assuming here that army would be my best option for hopefully being stationed with my spouse in the future)? Applications are coming up pretty quickly and I know the military match is much earlier than the civilian match.

If I am not eligible for the med student programs (I guess that only really includes HPSP) then which of the other programs would be better a better fit for me? Ideally if I am going to go into a career in military medicine it would make sense for me to train at a military residency, but it's unclear to me how I would be able to do that if I'm not an HPSP student.

Sorry if this has been addressed before, I just can't seem to find it anywhere! Thanks for any help/advice you can provide!

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[244913]

I don't even know where to begin here- please spend a few hours reading these forums and absolutely do not try and do a 1 yr HPSP "scholarship."

Joining in this manner with the hopes of co-locating is the worst idea since Zubaz pants.

Please, think this over carefully before you administer a T.K.O. to your dreams, medical future, and sanity.

 

[AF M4]

1) No.
2) Pretty much the same answer as #1. Too late in the game.

- the FAP (Financial Assistance Program) might work.

You're coming from kind of an odd place here that I'm not quite getting. You want to join military medicine so that you "might" be stationed with your fiance? Why not simply maintain as a civilian, then apply to residency in the region your spouse gets stationed? FP residencies are routinely the most plentiful and easiest to get into of all the residencies, and there are very few areas of the country where your fiance could be stationed where there would not be multiple civilian training sites within an easy commute for you.

Conversely, IF your fiance happened to get stationed at a base where there was an Army residency, there is no guarantee that you would match at that particular residency. Indeed, you could be placed in a residency across the country, and there would be NOTHING you could do about it. Whereas, as noted above, staying the civilian route leaves you with multiple options.

I'm sorry, but joining in your situation seems to offer only significant downsides to both your career and your impending marriage, with no upside that I can discern.

 

[Cooperd0g]

AF M4 is absolutely correct. If our goal is to be able to be mobile with your husbands Army career, staying FM as a civilian is your best chance.

 

[emewe]

Thanks for the responses. Pretty much what I expected unfortunately.

Let me just clarify though that my major reason for joining was not because I think I'm definitely going to be stationed with my spouse. I've read plenty on this forum and other sources to tell me that is not a sound plan. However, even if I stay civilian I know that having a spouse in the military will mean that there will be plenty of separations. We have already had to deal with a lot of those since we got together. It seems to me though that if I am civilian it is unlikely that I will be able to keep up with his relocations anyway; it's not as if I can change residencies or jobs at the drop of a hat each time he has to move. I suppose my thought was that if I joined too at least they would TRY to keep us together.

I'm also aware that doing HPSP for only one year is not exactly a financial gain. That wasn't really my motivation for joining in the first place. I'm interested in the residency programs and military opportunities on their own merits because I really think it would be a valuable experience based on what I have found through my research. It seems like I would get great training and some unique opportunities by serving for a while and then going back to civilian. What exactly would make it a "TKO" to my career? I keep reading that and I guess I don't exactly understand why people say that.

So, taking any financial and marriage advice out of the equation, how would I go about applying for a military residency without being in HPSP (which seems to be confirmed as not an option)? It was my understanding that FAP would be after a civilian residency. All of the information I have found about applying has only been relevant to HPSP so I'm a little confused. I'm obviously going to talk to a recruiter as well but I just wanted to see if anyone else out there had any first hand experience.

Again, sorry if this has been addressed elsewhere, but I have done a lot of searching and haven't come up with anything helpful.

 

[Cooperd0g]

If you were in the military the will try and keep you together, but depending on his military 'job' you still may be out of luck. Timing may be off just like trying to leave one practice for another. Residency along side his location is almost certainly not going to happen and you can't change locations during that just like you couldn't as a civilian. I'm very pro military, but I still think going civilian is your best bet for maximum time together. There were several officers I knew who's spouses were physicians, ophthos, orthos, and anesthesia. They were easily able to switch practices and move with their husbands. In the Navy you typically get 4-8 months notice. Sometimes they trailed behind a few months to not ditch their practice too fast.

Have you looked at locum tenens? That might be the ideal solution for flexibility in your situation once residency is complete.

 

[emewe]

Thanks for the advice I haven't looked too much into locum tenens, but I suppose that would be a good temporary option.