National Guard

[Pop]

Does anyone know if I am correct in this information about the new national guard program as up april 2008. They pay you while you are in medical school. Pay back your loans while you are in residency (and you are currently active national guard and non deployable) and then you have no committement after residency.

Is this true? If it is, what is in it for them if you don't owe them anything and the only service you provide is training every few months.

??

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[notdeadyet]

There's a very detailed thread that goes through the ASR program, tuition benefits, and other programs offered by the National Guard in this thread.

If you read that thread, you'll answer all your questions and learn the pros and cons of the program.

 

[starfishprime]

what is in it for them??

Medical students are like highly sought first round basketball prospects.

For one, serving in the Guard basically means the government owns an option on you. At any time over the duration of the contract, the government can choose to buy out your time at the going rate (active duty pay) and send you wherever they want. As you might imagine, it's kind of important to have the option on a lot of doctors in case of war and so forth.
Moreover, the Guard has historically had a high retention of doctors. Job satisfaction is relatively high, and deployments etc. were rare. Post 9/11, more deployments, less interest from physicians in the service, and so forth. Fewer doctors are sticking around to retirement.

Summary: Objectives are to provide additional incentive for medical students to join the Guard. Odds are, many of these physicians will voluntarily extend their terms of service beyond 8 years, as was common in previous times. This will lead doubly to an increase in medical officer recruitment and retention over the next 20-ish years.

Right?