Navy and the GMO tour

[BOHICA-FIGMO]

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I'm sure this has been bandied about in the past, but here goes anyway. What is the current Navy policy regarding GMO tours after intern year? Are they trying to get out of this habit to allow for uninterrupted medical training? Also, which (if any) residency choices are more likely to get you straight form GME 1 to GME 2 without an intervening GMO tour? Thanks in advance!

 

[ishii123]

I'm sure this has been bandied about in the past, but here goes anyway. What is the current Navy policy regarding GMO tours after intern year? Are they trying to get out of this habit to allow for uninterrupted medical training? Also, which (if any) residency choices are more likely to get you straight form GME 1 to GME 2 without an intervening GMO tour? Thanks in advance!

Navy's current policy is to keep the "GMO after internship" system in place, especially under Admiral Arthur's leadership as Navy Surgeon General. I do Not forsee this policy changing anytime soon. As Navy Physicians, we take care of Navy and Marine Corps Personnel and all of them are highly deployable (especially them "jarheads"). Yes, I know Army and Air Force try to allow their docs go straight thru residency. But Navy Medicine has resisted this policy.

In general, half the docs in the "easy" specialties have a good chance of going straight thru residency (eg. Internal Medicine, Family Practice, Psych). But if you want a "competitive" specialty (eg. Rads, Derm, Opthal, ENT, etc), then you are most definitely doing a Navy GMO tour.

 

[helo doc]

And it also depends on if you're HPSP versus USUHS. There's a chance for a deferment with HPSP. However, the above post is on the money. If you want a more "competitive" residency, plan on a GMO/FS/UMO tour. There are a few 12 month long unaccompanied GMO tours that you can try for in order to minimize the interruption in your training. Bottom line, GMO tours for the Navy aren't going away any time soon. My advice... try to have some fun during that tour (dive medicine for a buncha guys who love to blow stuff up, flight surgeon with a tactical squadron, etc) and don't get bitter about. However, if you'd like pointers on how to be really bitter, there's probably plenty of help to be found around here.

 

[BOHICA-FIGMO]

And it also depends on if you're HPSP versus USUHS. There's a chance for a deferment with HPSP. However, the above post is on the money. If you want a more "competitive" residency, plan on a GMO/FS/UMO tour. There are a few 12 month long unaccompanied GMO tours that you can try for in order to minimize the interruption in your training. Bottom line, GMO tours for the Navy aren't going away any time soon. My advice... try to have some fun during that tour (dive medicine for a buncha guys who love to blow stuff up, flight surgeon with a tactical squadron, etc) and don't get bitter about. However, if you'd like pointers on how to be really bitter, there's probably plenty of help to be found around here.

I'm not bitter at all, just curious about trends in Navy medicine/medical training. I spent 11 years in the USAF (and we all know what a Goat Rope USAF medicine is right now), so I'm just trying to start to get a "feel" for the Navy. Thanks for the info!

FWIW, would you recommend FS, UMO, or GMO? I love to SCUBA dive; so the UMO things sounds interesting. On the ohter hand, I did aerospace physiology with the USAF, so I know how cool aviation can be. Maybe I should start a new thread with this one?

 

[bobbyseal]

I'd probably do flight surgery if I was forced to. Fortunately, it didn't come to that and I got defered.

Anyway, you can always go scuba diving. You'll never ever get a chance to fly in an F-18 if you don't do flight surgery.