You can match a civilian residency if you do not match a military residency.
This is just wrong, and you need to understand why before you apply. When you join the military you are stuck in their match system, with their odds. Applying for a civilian residency is a rare privilege that you need to apply for, and that very few people actually get. It's not an option if things don't work out the way you wanted in the military match. If you go through the military match you are going to match, although it may be something that you didn't request
For example, say you want to match into military emergency medicine. You have a competitive application by civilian standards: a 230 on Step 1 and you've honored about half your cores. However the military's EM system is as competitive as orthopaedics, so you don't get EM. You don't get to go to the civilian world and try again. You get something else on the military's match day: an IM, Psych, transitional, or pre-surgical intern year. And you're stuck with that until you've finished the year and an operational tour. And then you're not guaranteed EM, you just get another chance to apply.
I know that there are IM and Peds residencies at many Naval Hospitals...
IM/Peds is a combined residency, where you do 4 years and get boarded in IM and Peds. It is an example of a residency that does not exist in the military.
GMO tours are awesome!!! This is coming from 15-20 different navy docs that I know personally, you get to be operational long before your civilian peers, and you are a much stronger resident when you do get to residency because you are essentially practicing as a GP for 4 years.
1) Different people have different opinions on GMO tours. Some people enjoy them, some people despise them, and it seems like most enjoy the chance to play solider/Marine but also wish they could have just focused on being a real doctor. The fact is that most people who end up doing them applied to be allowed to continue their training. An all 'voluntold' force is probably not completely awesome. I understand the operational necessity for GMO tours, and I basically support their existence, but the fact is that from the physician's perspective it is a sacrifice.
2) You do not want to be 'operational long before your civilian peers'. Residency exists for a reason, and the reason is that someone a year out of medical school is not competent to practice independently. Again, I understand the reason the Navy does it this way, and I don't have any better ideas, but it's not something I'm looking forward to.
3) You are not operating as a GP. Or rather, you are operating as a GP who treats only healthy, athletic adolescents. I suppose that could make you a stronger resident in pediatric sports medicine, but for every other specialty on the planet you have just spent 4 solid years away from the real diseases that are supposed to be your bread and butter.
I'm not sure what you mean by "That your pay until your initial obligation is up (7 years for USUHS) will be drastically less than your pay after you sign up again, so you can be doing the same job for the same amount of time as someone who took the HPSP scholarship while making half as much money?"
When you complete your initial obligation as a physician you will have the option to sign up again. At that time you will become eligible for two very large bonuses: Incentive specialty pay and Multi-year specialty pay. The higher paid your profession in the civilian world, the higher the bonus. At the extreme, an Anesthesiologist on his second obligation makes $120,000 more than than an Anesthesiologist on his first. So if you're from USUHS and you're 5 years in you will be working next to HPSP grads, who are also 5 years in, who are doing the exact same job, and who are making twice as much as you are.
This is why you should shoot for HPSP over USUHS even if you are 100% sure your goal is a career in the military.
Due to bonuses for different specialities, pay works out to be a the national
median for that specialty, For example the current bonus for EM is $36,000/yr,
plus more bonuses for board certifications.
BTW unless you're in family medicine or pediatrics the pay with bonuses doesn't work out to be anything close to the national median. A board certified residency complete EM doc in the military might make $150,000 with bonuses. That's 100,000 below the median.
As far as poor working conditions: As we like to say in the Navy regarding duty assigments: You bloom where you are planted. If something is not going well, you, as an officer, have the ability to change it
NO. One thing you absolutely have to understand about being a junior physician in the military is that most problems are completely out of your control. Abusive O-5 nurse administrator running your clinic? You're stuck. Your pediatric ventilators are actually jury rigged adult ventilators that you think are monstrously unsafe? You're stuck. Your wife has a stable position in Florida but you just received orders to report to Guam on short notice? Stuck again. The military is about ACCEPTING what's thrown at you, and working with it, not about changing it. This is not to say that I think the military is more or less f-d up as an organization as your average hospital. I've seen plenty of bad medical decisions, terrible nurse administrators, and toxic work environments in the civilian world. The difference is that you can not walk away from your problems in the military if they get bad enough.
