Military Residencies; Especially Army

[Who'syourdaddy?]

Hello all,

I wanted to get a feel for how military residencies are viewed by the general medical community, ie other doctors, hospitals, etc etc. I have the GME directory and that's helpful but I am wondering what opinions, good or bad, some might have about these.

BTW, I have to apply for these because I am an HPSP (don't you love how the military loves acronyms, I wonder why?) student and am required to apply for FYGME through the Army.

If anyone has any info on how good military residencies, FYGME, etc is, esp. for the Army, could you please post it, thanks in advance.

Also, if one specialty, ENT, EM, is really good in the military, or one place, Tripler, is really good for GME than please post that as well, thanks in advance, again.

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[Who'syourdaddy?]

Can anyone give me some info on Military residencies, please?

 

[gower]

I was not a military physician so I cannot write from direct experience. Generally, you are required to do your residency in a military hospital unless such a residency was not on offer; in that case, you can do a civilian residency.

Some years ago I had an opportunity to visit Jacksonville Naval base and hospital in Florida. I spoke with a pediatrican, a Lt. Commander, I think, who I met in the base pediatrics ward. He was a pediatrician taking care of Navy families' children. He had a personality I thought very suitable for that. He appeared very happy with his work and the Navy. But he casually commented that he was cross-trained in surgery, was part of the Rapid Deployment Force, always kept a bag packed, and when the Marine outfit he was attached to went overseas, he went with them. Didn't seem to bother him at all. I also met a Navy physician who gave up his civilian practice for the Navy.
His comment: regular hours, all the supplies he needed and personnel to help him take care of office work. A Navy nurse, a Commander in charge of the Base nurses who also left a civilian career for a different challenge. Very satisfied. I met a new med school graduate very unhappy with doing a military residency.
I think, but you better check this, that you can buy out of the military by repaying them all the money they paid for your medical education.
I do not know if the military residencies are somehow inferior to civilian residencies, which I suspect may be behind your question.

 

[Liljoe2002]

I'm a Navy HPSP-MSIII so I don't know how helpful that I can be, but my first advice is to go to the Army HPSP website if they have one-I'm sure they do. Here you can look up email addresses of interns and residents in their prospective programs to find out if they like it. This is what I did and found it very useful.

I can tell you that Military residency programs have a reputation of being very good. I have talked with alot of interns and resident in all branches and they all say that their training is comparable with top programs around the country. Military programs are also competitive if you go into any of the subspecialties as it is in the civilian world. FP and general medicine programs have more spots available and are easier to obtain. This is because the military wants people for primary care to take care of the troops. I'm very interested in Radiology, however the Navy has only 10 spots!!!!! Very competitive to go into. I will probably do a transitional year, do a tour as a general medical officer to make myself more competitive and then reapply for Radiology. If I don't get accepted I will petition for a civilian program. If I'm denied than I might have to look into medicine or FP. So to sum it up, yes, residencies are good in the military however subspecialties are competitive just like it is everywhere else. Hope this kind of gives you a general idea.

Liljoe

 

[docflight2]

Doing a tour as a GMO does not make you more competitive- it may allow you to stay in the area (National Naval Medical Center or San Diego) near the Radiology program you are interested in. That way you could rotate through the department periodically, go to their meetings/functions, and get to know them. If you want to be more competitive when you apply you need to do the following.... make rank (LCDR), do an OPERATIONAL tour (ie CAG stuff, Marine units, overseas assignments), do Flight Surgery or Dive Medicine, get into leadership roles- Dept Head positions (military medicine, sickcall, fitness coordinator...). Bottom line- operational tour Flight Surgeons/DMO's do VERY well with respect to the Military match. Example: 3 Flight Surgeon's from my last assignment matched in Radiology at NNMC and are currently there now. 4 classmates from internship (all Flight Surgeon's from operational units) matched in Radiology at Balboa and are there now. This is NOT a slam on GMO's I am just elaborating on things that will make your application more competitive. Hope it helps.