Navy internship ?'s

[ddmo]

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Hi guys (and gals), I have a couple questions about navy internships.

1) Is it possible to do a surgical internship, or do they want you to do a transitional one so that you have a broader experience base during the GMO tour?

2) Does the internship add to your commitment like residency does? If you do a three year HPSP and spend 3 years doing a GMO after the internship year, are you done, or do you owe another year?

Thanks. DDMoore

 

[Navy Dive Doc]

1. You can do any kind of internship, if you do it in the Navy you'll get some rotations on other services (medicine, ER, OB/GYN) to make you well rounded enough for a GMO tour.
2. The internship counts neither for nor against you. Your payback starts after internship, year for year of HPSP time. If you do flight surgery or Dive Medicine, the 6 months of training does count as payback and there is no additional obligation.
DD

 

[ddmo]

Thanks Dive Doc! I don't know what we would do without your experience and knowledge in this forum.

 

[iwakuni_doc]

One thing to look out for when picking your internship if you're possibly considering on getting out to do a civilian residency after a GMO tour - you can be limited in number of funded residency years available depending on what internship you did.

Example: a friend of mine did an FP internship in the Navy, completed his payback as GMO, applied to ER (3yrs) in civilian world but is limited due to only having 2 funded years left from original 3yrs of funding allocated for FP. If this person had stayed in FP or switched to another residency in military - no big deal, but switching into a different program in civilian world requires the hospital to suck up the cost of the final year...definitely limits options.

Since I did a surgery internship & then switched to ER, I've got plenty of funded years left for civilian internship. I'm not sure how it works with transitional year internships, but it's definitely something to look into.

 

[Navy Dive Doc]

One more thing:
If you are looking to get out, some civilian programs, particularly surgical programs, will make you repeat internship if it's been a few years since you completed yours. Especially 4 year HPSPers, this is a big factor and shouldn't be overlooked. Stay in the Navy, no problem, you'll start as a PGY-2 (they expect you to be clueless after a few years out, it comes back quickly). I'd rather cut off my arm than repeat internship, so think about what your long term plans are if you can.
DD

 

[Navy Dive Doc]

Certainly possible to do your time and get out, see my above post for the possibility of the dreaded repeat internship, but as general surgery is declining in popularity, you might find a program willing to let you start as a pgy-2. If your DMO tour is near a Naval Hospital (most are), you could keep your skills up by spending a day a week or taking call for the surgery department.