Practicing Physician path through MilMed

[mataku527]

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Hey all. I finished med school the US, did FP residency here in the US, and then did a fellowship in Maternal-Child-Health. I am working at my residency/fellowship program as an attending physician for 6 months before I do a global health gig for 6 months in Peru. When I come back I will be re-locating (significant other starting school) and finally have an opportunity to look into my future plans.

I am seriously looking into military med as it has always been an interest of mine to serve my country. I have limited knowledge of military med but my ideal practice would be:
- working full time at a community clinic or VA
- working with the reserve or national guard, ideally for deployment in disaster situations nationally, but understand there is always possibility of overseas.

Based on what I would like, I'm trying to figure out if this is something that is possible or reasonable. I currently work within an FQHC (read- low pay and a good deal of bureaucracy). It's not clear to me the difference between the NG and AR.

 

[HighPriest]

Working for the VA is a different beast from working for military medicine, as the Veteran's Administration and the military are different departments. You'd think that they would play well together and be fairly similar in function, but they definitely are not. A VA gig isn't a bad gig, however in terms of work hours. You probably won't do a ton of maternal-child health in a VA system, however. I don't know that for sure, but that is what logic would dictate.

You could look for a position as a civilian contractor at a military facility. Frankly, the military (at least the Army) is very understaffed in terms of FP, and most posts pop out babies like a teenager pops zits.

No wait, I can do better: most posts pop out babies like Syria pops out refugees.

The point is, I would imagine there would be a place for you. It would depend upon whether or not there's a post near wherever it is you're relocating.

NG and AR is someone else's department. I know a few NG surgeons. They basically do their own thing until it's time to do their annual training, and then they go to a nearby Army post and work a couple of weeks. Of course, you might get deployed in those gigs.