Realization

i misread your op. i see you want to want to stay in. well im not sure what your long term goals are exactly. what's your commitment? in any case, stay in or get out, at least you served. there's no shame in getting out . . . everybody (including the CNO) get's out eventually. if everybody stayed in, the military would go bankrupt

im a little curious about your career path, b/c im interested in peds. were you usuhs or hpsp? have you already done your peds residency? or are waiting to do it after your GMO? and is it hard to get a sea GMO billet?

 

I want the military to want me to stay in.

 

I was talking about this with a former colleague yesterday. It's like a domestic abuse cycle. We are like the battered spouse. The military medical system abuses us repeatedly but every once and awhile throws us a bone. We want to stay in the relationship. We are convinced we can fix it or things will change. After awhile the abuse gets comfortable.

It was very difficult for me to leave the military. Just ask my wife She wanted to hit me over the head repeatedly.

 

That's it, right there.

 

Nail on the head.

 

Is this because the military thinks of its pediatricians as internists that only work with kids in certain billets?

 

Don't you mean administrators that only work with kids in certain billets? Air Force is down to two programs now, woot! Wright Patt or Wilford Hall hmmmm....

 

Congratulations, you're expendable. The Navy really doesn't value you because you are replaceable by the same methods you were obtained, the HPSP. Since there is no penalty to them if you leave, happy or not, and another bulb in the box for the socket you are in (metaphorically, they hope), they will just screw someone else into your job.

The Navy and others services really don't suffer the loss of disappointed GMOs. Magic budget money--that can't be used for anything else anyway--trains those doctors out of sight in civilian institutions. All they have to do is ensure that everyone becomes license-able under the minimum terms available and that there are enough warm bodies to fill the operational side demands. Filling the training slots at PGY2 and above is the least of their worries as there are relatively few of them to begin with compared to internship and GMO slots. You being wanted, appreciated for your sacrifice of delay to your training, or being happy, doesn't fit into their equation.

The only way there becomes a problem is if there aren't enough raw numbers of accessions (they don't even complain much that the quality has dropped to "any willing applicant" levels, go figure) or if some authority outside their self-certifying circle says using incompletely-trained doctors who have been denied opportunity for full residency training is unethical and thus forbidden.

A little while back, poster i want out posed a hypothetical that the Navy might offer wholesale FP training (too bad if you had your heart set on ortho) which you might have to refuse and which by refusing you might find yourself legally declaring yourself to be adequately trained for your assignment (one you had not done, so how would you know?) With the crummy ethics I know the Navy medical department to operate under, and the way I know they treat professionals in their employment, I would not put it past them. They are that mendacious.

 

mendacious: adjective - not truthful; lying or false

(to save others the time. I know I had to look it up)

 

well just do what you're thinking . . . go back and finish up your resid, finish your payback and get out. nothing wrong with that. if you make a commitment to the military and you've paid it back, there's nothing wrong with making the decision to get out. I did that once!

What is wrong is becoming that jaded crazed dude, who makes it his sole ambition in life to deter others from service, always bad-mouthing our military/gov't and never rationalizing that military service (in whatever job) may fit some people's needs and particular circumstances . . . don't become that jaded guy.

do your time, get out, voice your constructive criticisms, and be proud of your service.

 

And whatever you do, don't become the apologist for bad policies, always rationalizing one way or another how dissatisfaction with mil/gov is really only the result of a flaw in a particular individual, as if service on any terms were inherently something good and above criticism.

Whatever you do, don't become that apparatchik guy.

 

I knew I'd bait someone! Anyway . . . I agree with you! Nothing in the gov't is above criticism . . . should be criticized, should be kept in check. At least in our gov't, we have means to criticize. Do you think a forum like this exists in China?! hell no.

 

I agree with you. the existence of dissent is a good thing . . .responsiveness is the next step

no actually, there aren't. The Chinese gov't goes to great lengths to shut down any servers in their country that host websites like this one . . .they also go to great lengths to restrict access to foreign websites. we have plenty of intel on this (if you have sipr access, google about it sometime on intelipedia, it's pretty startling! by 'shutting down servers', i mean they take out the whole building, civilians inside and all)

agree/disagree somewhat. sometimes the criticism is ignored, but change does happen in our military/gov't, although sometimes at a snail's pace.

 

I don't always agree with you Tired, but this is as spot-on a summary of the problem as I've seen in a long time...

 

It's this snails pace, or "glacial" as it was once quoted to me by the deputy to the surgeon general, that is one of the "nails on the coffin" of milmed. (an indirect quote from the 0-6 duschbag who made our collective live's hell for 2 years). That slow pace is not a good fit for medicine, ever!