Question for AD physicians

[idq1i]

What is the lifestyle of AD O-3/0-4 post-residency physicians like? Can they have a house? A car? A family that they get to see? Do they live on-base?

Do they live in constant anticipation of deployment? When it is their turn to get deployed, when do they find out? 3 months ahead? 1 week?

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[militarymd]

What is the lifestyle of AD O-3/0-4 post-residency physicians like? Can they have a house? A car? A family that they get to see? Do they live on-base?

Do they live in constant anticipation of deployment? When it is their turn to get deployed, when do they find out? 3 months ahead? 1 week?

The answer is, without being facetious, "all of the above".

No guarantees for anything, but anything is possible depending on the type of billet/location/specialty.

 

[Navy Dive Doc]

Search my posts, I've answered a lot of the lifestyle questions and pay issues. You're paid well enough to afford a normal middle class lifestyle with houses, cars, etc. You can live in base housing if you want to and can get it, which varies enormously depending on location. Every Doc I know lives out in town, except for the Southern California guys, about 50/50 there due to the insane housing prices. If you opt to live on base, you do not get your housing allowance.

As for deployments, in the Navy things are scheduled quite far in advance (at least for the long 6 month deployments). By that I mean 6-9 months out you know roughly when you're leaving, though schedules may change by a few weeks. The shorter underways on the ships can be short notice (72 hours is usually the minimum time), but are generally scheduled. The specialty trained Docs are working in the hospital, and will not deploy on short notice. The Docs at the Naval hospitals are on Fleet Surgical Teams, but these are huge and do not get moving at a moment's notice. You'll know well in advance.

The only very short notice call ups I've personally had were for short OPS (a few days). Some of these were "hey Doc, you're leaving tomorrow morning", but they are infrequent ( a couple in 3 years).

 

[r90t]

Look at the pay scales to find out exactly what you will make as an O-3/O-4. No sugar coating there. If you get paid more as an intern/resident than your civilian counterparts, but less after training. You accrue 30 days leave/year, hopefully you can take it all. I have never lived in base housing and never will. I don't want to see people that I work with after working hours. Housing rates vary according to the area. I'm in Washington state right now. My housing allowance (BAH) is ~1400/month which will buy you a very nice place up here. In San Diego it was ~ 2000/month which covered my mortgage for the place that I bought in 2002, however, the BAH rates have not kept up with the increasing home values. I would probably rent, rather than buy, as the average San Diego home is now > 500k, and the BAH has gone up a fraction of what it needs to. Deployments are scheduled way ahead of time. Don't forget for the predeployment work ups that you do in the navy which include lots of sea time. Deployments are 6-8 months scheduled, but I think the USS Lincoln was out for about 10 months due to Iraqi Freedom starting towards the tail end of the deployment. My post deployment time is like a 8-4 job, go to the ship and see pts until done, then go home. We have also shifted to a "surge" deployment where ships that are not scheduled to deploy soon, are held as backups. If a war breaks out, you "surge" out to the conflict, then come home as soon as it is over. Staff at my old command were assigned to secondary platforms. They deploy when the line counterparts go. People assigned the medical component to the 1st Marine Division were told to go with less than ideal notice. Less than 1 month for what I heard.

 

[idq1i]

Look at the pay scales to find out exactly what you will make as an O-3/O-4. No sugar coating there.

Thanks for the response, everyone. Navy Dive Doc, I am assuming that the deployment scheduling is similar in the Army?

I am not concerned about the pay. I was primarily intererested in what my lifestyle will be like post-residency. I have not given it much thought ever since I signed on the dotted line

I was especially interested in the deployment scheduling - random vs. planned, and whether or not I can begin to settle in the place of my assignment

 

[HeavyD]

Check out: www.staynavy.navy.mil
Click on pay & compensation and use the pay calculator. Lots of choices for special pays but this will provide you with some fair estimate $$ numbers.

 

[r90t]

Also, look at residency choices, when comparing deployment rates. Some specialties (EM, FP, IM) deploy more than other specialties (Rad Onc, Rads, Path), however none are immune. O-5 Staff pediatricians were pulled to man our fleet hospitals, often to positions outside of their specialty. In a non-wartime situation, I think military physicians assigned to hospitals have an easier schedule than their civilian counterparts in teaching facilities/private practice. My 3rd/4th year med school physicians that I did clerkships with had greater patient volume and stayed later in the evening than the average navy doc.