JSBGME Strategy

[reticular]

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I'm just starting my MS-III year and beginning preparation for the military match next year. For the NRMP I've read it's generally not a good idea to list more than one specialty as program directors tend to see multiple specialties as a lack of dedication on the part of the applicant.

Does this hold true in military (USAF) programs as well?

I just found my step I score was considerably higher than the assessment had predicted. All of a sudden a few specialties I hadn't considered seem reachable, but I'd still rather do FP (which I've been considering all along) rather than 2yrs GMO.

 

[sethco]

If you put down a second specialty on the application, you better be ready to match into your second choice specialty. Especially if you do something like list Anesthesia/Rads/Ortho/EMed as your first choice and something like FP/IM/Peds as your second choice

 

[The White Coat Investor]

If you put down a second specialty on the application, you better be ready to match into your second choice specialty. Especially if you do something like list Anesthesia/Rads/Ortho/EMed as your first choice and something like FP/IM/Peds as your second choice

That is without a doubt a recipe to match into FP/IM/Peds. Do not for a second think the match would ever put you into A/R/O/EM (no matter what else you did, said, or wrote) if you put down one of those other specialties.

What I would do if you would rather be an FP the rest of your life than be a GMO for 2 years then do the specialty of your choice is list only the specialty of your choice, and then if forced into GMO land, call up the FP specialty leader and express a desire to change specialties. In my experience, they usually don't fill all their positions and could scoot you in last minute. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[reticular]

Thanks for all the advice. At this point I'm kind of thinking IM vs FP, I'm interested in the program at Travis AFB. I worked as a civilian paramedic for many years in the SF bay area and I can't say I really miss EM like I thought I might. I do enjoy working in clinics and the out-patient settings that I've had exposure to in med school so far. I think I have a strong background for EM (but no prior service, so apparently not military EM), but I'm not really sure that's what I want to do with the rest of my life.

However, I am curious about CCATT. I only learned about this in Intro to SAM during the summer after first year and it seemed like a cool gig. My understanding is you need some critical care background to do this (Anesthesia, General Surgery, IM with Pulm fellowship or EMed). Any of these specialties seem to diverge sharply from my plan at this point (except maybe IM).

I guess I'm curious if there are other routes into CCATT. It sounds like putting EM at the top of list is not likely to change anything.

Do Family docs ever fly CCATT missions? Does an IM doc need a fellowship to do it? Are these CCATT slots easy to get, or am I looking at the end of a very long queue?

Thanks again for the info.

 

[The White Coat Investor]

I don't know of any flight surgeon CCATT docs. You sure they were flight surgeons, or did you just assume that because they were wearing a bag?

CCATT isn't as cool as it sounds initially, but I don't know of any FPs doing it. Mostly anesthesiologists and pulmonologists, a few surgeons and EPs.

 

[The White Coat Investor]

They introduced themselves that way.
.

Weird. Don't know how to explain that, unless the doc was previously trained in another specialty.

 

[sethco]

Weird. Don't know how to explain that, unless the doc was previously trained in another specialty.

The CCAT docs are usually prior residency/fellowship trained docs in Anesthesia, Surgery, E Med, IM or Critical Care

Flight Surgeons that are not residency trained (i.e. GMOs) are not supposed to attend the CCAT training course at Brooks