Medical schools...

[mdm2fly]

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I am applying for med school this summer, and I was wondering if anyone currently in the HPSP program, or anyone else who might know this information, knows which schools tend to facilitate a life in military medicine. I know that USUHS is the ideal in terms of milmed training, but how about other schools? I wish to compose a list of schools, so any advice/help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[The White Coat Investor]

I am applying for med school this summer, and I was wondering if anyone currently in the HPSP program, or anyone else who might know this information, knows which schools tend to facilitate a life in military medicine. I know that USUHS is the ideal in terms of milmed training, but how about other schools? I wish to compose a list of schools, so any advice/help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

All US medical schools will "facilitate a life in military medicine." They'll all give you reasonably good medical training and allow you to do your four required active duty tours during training. I don't see the point to your desire to compose a list of schools. Are you only planning to apply to these suggested schools because you're dead set on taking the HPSP scholarship?

 

[kwiggo]

HPSP works at any accredited medical school. From my limited exposure to military medicine (ADTs during med school working with army docs), the quality of your medical training will grossly outweigh the significance of any military training you get along the way as an Army physician. Go to the best med school that accepts you, and where you will be content spending lots of time reading.

 

[megadon]

I'll second all this. My school has a handful of HPSP students (at least in my class). I'm prior military, and I have never ever been so cut off from the military in my life. Granted I went to the Academy, but at least in ROTC you have at least one class a week. You will be a medical student, that's that. The military will not bother you, they don't care that my sideburns are down to the bottom of my ear, no one is looking over my shoulder. It's good and bad. The bad is that a lot of times you just feel hung out to dry. The good (and I did this gig for seven years after the academy) is that they leave you alone to do what you are supposed to do, get an MD. You don't have to muster, you don't have to wear an uniform. If you don't tell your friends how you are financing this little deal they will never know until potentially third or fourth year.

Screw pleasing MILMED, if you are going into the military, you know you are going to be a patient based clinician, pick the school that best fits that. I would recommend against research oriented schools, cause that is not what you are going to be doing. Go somewhere where you can learn to talk to a patient, take a history, and do a physical exam. Those are social skills, the diagnosis and treatment is a mental skill that you will learn at every medical school.

Go somewhere you are comfortable with your peers, you are going to be spending a lot of time with them, although it flies by.

 

[AF M4]

Ya dude, the question's pretty much meaningless. Milmed's still medicine and any med school in the country's going to give you the medical training you need for life in the military, so just focus on finding a school where you'll be comfortable for a tough 4 years of studying. If you've really got a hard-on for getting in touch with "the military life" while in med school, there was this one HPSP girl at our school that kept mass-emailing all the other HPSPers telling us that she was getting up at 5 AM to run around the university's track with the ROTC kids three times a week then wondering why no one else showed. So you could do that.

 

[mdm2fly]

sorry, i guess i was being vague...

i know that usuhs has actual courses in milmed, and they have a curriculum that encompasses tropical diseases and other topics that, to my knowledge, are not well covered in civilian schools, but that might be important when you serve abroad.

...am i wrong about this?

 

[NavyFP]

sorry, i guess i was being vague...

i know that usuhs has actual courses in milmed, and they have a curriculum that encompasses tropical diseases and other topics that, to my knowledge, are not well covered in civilian schools, but that might be important when you serve abroad.

...am i wrong about this?

The practice of medicine in the military is not appreciably different than the civilian world, though our patient population tends to be younger and healthier. The zebras you see in tropical diseases will most likely not be a daily part of your practice. Hypertension, diabetes, respiratory infections, ortho......they will. Learn about the horses first.

 

[colbgw02]

i know that usuhs has actual courses in milmed, and they have a curriculum that encompasses tropical diseases and other topics that, to my knowledge, are not well covered in civilian schools, but that might be important when you serve abroad.

...am i wrong about this?

umm...yeah...pretty much, you are.

the only topic that is relevant to military medicine that isn't covered well in a civilian school is the medevac systems and echelons of care that exist in an austere combat environment (read: irag and afghanistan). those topics are covered either by the bushmaster course (USUHS) or C4 (everyone else), and even then they're not covered all that well, especially considering that when going through those courses you're typically still several years away from your first deployment.

everything else is essentially the same, and you'd be much better off going to the best school available as opposed to one that focuses in on tropical medicine (to use your example).

 

[The White Coat Investor]

sorry, i guess i was being vague...

i know that usuhs has actual courses in milmed, and they have a curriculum that encompasses tropical diseases and other topics that, to my knowledge, are not well covered in civilian schools, but that might be important when you serve abroad.

...am i wrong about this?

Yes. While I think you will be better prepared to be a military doctor coming out of USUHS, I think you sacrifice some of your medical experience by going there. This is mostly just because you are in the military at USUHS and surrounded by other military students, not so much because you spend a bit of time at Bushmaster. It is much easier to pick up the military stuff after med school than to pick up the medicine after med school, if you get my drift.

 

[The White Coat Investor]

If you've really got a hard-on for getting in touch with "the military life" while in med school, there was this one HPSP girl at our school that kept mass-emailing all the other HPSPers telling us that she was getting up at 5 AM to run around the university's track with the ROTC kids three times a week then wondering why no one else showed. So you could do that.

Does anyone else find this really disturbing?

 

[AF M4]

I hope you whupped her upside the head at some point.

Would've, but being in the Chair Force I was usually sleeping and never could have caught her anyway, although I considered using tranquilizer darts at around email #4. Glad she's enthusiastic Army - wouldn't want to be one of the poor SOBs under her command when one day she decides that all her docs need to run until everyone can do a 5 minute mile.

 

[Ex-44E3A]

Does anyone else find this really disturbing?

Yes... a bit. "Rah-rah's" do get annoying after a while.

Gung-ho is fine, but when others are clearly not interested, you'd think a person would back off (confession time: I ran at 4AM when I was a medical student too, but I ran by myself; I consider fitness to be a private, personal goal. It's also almost like cheating when you're being cheered on by a group, and a lot harder when it's just you, your chrono, a headwind, and the track).

 

[AF M4]

Yes... a bit. "Rah-rah's" do get annoying after a while.

Gung-ho is fine, but when others are clearly not interested, you'd think a person would back off (confession time: I ran at 4AM when I was a medical student too, but I ran by myself; I consider fitness to be a private, personal goal. It's also almost like cheating when you're being cheered on by a group, and a lot harder when it's just you, your chrono, a headwind, and the track).

Heh, well, I guess you're just not smart enough to know that if YOU find something enjoyable than EVERYONE ELSE should enjoy it too, if they weren't too lazy to get out of bed.