Should I apply for the HPSP scholarship?

[Proudfather94]

Hey guys I want to see if I can get your advice on if this is a wise decision. So I tried to join the military straight out of high school and then again my first year of college when I wasn't sure I could handle school. I have a few medical conditions that basically made my recruiter give up both times. I just got accepted into a DO school that I'm going to attend and am wondering if it's worth it to shoot my shot.

A part of me has always wanted to serve our country, and not being saddled with loans is looking very promising. Would this be a smart move for someone with a wife and kid? If I get deployed, where would I most likely end up? Could I take my family with me if it's a safe place like Germany? Thanks for the advice!

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[Trefoil]

Deployments and being stationed OCONUS are two very different things. People are stationed with their families overseas frequently.

There are a lot of factors for you to weigh. Depending on the branch of service, training will be limited for a lot if not most subspecialties in the future.

The military is largely shrinking its medical corps, so you have to understand that the good days seem to have passed. The military as a whole wants to upgrade their weapons systems, and they are taking directly from the medical budget to do so. They are doing this when the medical portion of the budget has been stagnant for almost 20 years despite inflation.

The navy plans on cutting 500 physician billets over the next six years. The Air Force and Army are also cutting physician billets to a lesser extent (150ish for Army). The big picture is that there is a strong possibility that there will be no residency available in your specialty of choice. Even if you get the training you want, you will end up in an under resourced clinic with a low patient volume which causes skill atrophy.

I am happy with my choice, but I have already received my training. The future is far less certain, and I would strongly dissuade you especially if you have your eyes set on a competitive specialty.

It’s great not having loans, but most physicians will be able to pay them off in a reasonable amount of time. There is a lot of uncertainty in military medicine, and I don’t see it as being a good option if you want to keep doors open. Public service loan forgiveness has been improved and is probably the better option.

 

[anniekat2025]

Deployments and being stationed OCONUS are two very different things. People are stationed with their families overseas frequently.

There are a lot of factors for you to weigh. Depending on the branch of service, training will be limited for a lot if not most subspecialties in the future.

The military is largely shrinking its medical corps, so you have to understand that the good days seem to have passed. The military as a whole wants to upgrade their weapons systems, and they are taking directly from the medical budget to do so. They are doing this when the medical portion of the budget has been stagnant for almost 20 years despite inflation.

The navy plans on cutting 500 physician billets over the next six years. The Air Force and Army are also cutting physician billets to a lesser extent (150ish for Army). The big picture is that there is a strong possibility that there will be no residency available in your specialty of choice. Even if you get the training you want, you will end up in an under resourced clinic with a low patient volume which causes skill atrophy.

I am happy with my choice, but I have already received my training. The future is far less certain, and I would strongly dissuade you especially if you have your eyes set on a competitive specialty.

It’s great not having loans, but most physicians will be able to pay them off in a reasonable amount of time. There is a lot of uncertainty in military medicine, and I don’t see it as being a good option if you want to keep doors open. Public service loan forgiveness has been improved and is probably the better option.

Second everything here, tons of great info.

My advice: go to school, do the residency you want/choose, and see how things are looking in military medicine when you are done with your training. Another good option to look into is going into the Guard or Reserves. There are options for physicians of all specialties to serve in what is basically a primary care type capacity for an entire unit. You help take care of the people in your unit, go to trainings with them, deploy with them...can be a pretty good option. You can do this as a medical student, a resident, or later on as an attending. They may/may not pay for school but they will definitely pay you something. I can send you some more specific links if you want to look more into that.

 

[Proudfather94]

Thanks guys! I probably won't do it since they're cutting the budget for it. I'll just take out loans

 

[Trefoil]

Thanks guys! I probably won't do it since they're cutting the budget for it. I'll just take out loans

The other thing I’ll add is that the reason for all of these cuts is because the big picture of the world is really scary at the moment. In the past, a direct conflict with China was relatively unlikely; however, we are moving in a direction where the DoD is panicking and trying to play catch up as China increases aggression in the Pacific. I think they will highly regret their decisions if a war actually breaks out…in the past, the military couldn’t find enough physicians for large scale wars. If a war were to break out they would probably send a bunch of undertrained GMOs straight to the frontlines after intern year.

 

[orbitsurgMD]

The other thing I’ll add is that the reason for all of these cuts is because the big picture of the world is really scary at the moment. In the past, a direct conflict with China was relatively unlikely; however, we are moving in a direction where the DoD is panicking and trying to play catch up as China increases aggression in the Pacific. I think they will highly regret their decisions if a war actually breaks out…in the past, the military couldn’t find enough physicians for large scale wars. If a war were to break out they would probably send a bunch of undertrained GMOs straight to the frontlines after intern year.

And they would turn to Congress to activate the Selective Service draft plans for medical personnel. That is what they have always done in the past.

 

[militaryPHYS]

Our next major war will look nothing like our previous conflicts.

 

[orbitsurgMD]

Our next major war will look nothing like our previous conflicts.

True. Waves of cyberattacks that make no distinction between military and civilian assets, hypersonic missles, drone attacks and measures not known to the public, widespread power, utilities and transportation disruption. Look at the result of the Colonial Pipeline cyberattack.

 

[TheEarDoc]

True. Waves of cyberattacks that make no distinction between military and civilian assets, hypersonic missles, drone attacks and measures not known to the public, widespread power, utilities and transportation disruption. Look at the result of the Colonial Pipeline cyberattack.

Yep civilians will experience war in ways even WWII families did not. A war with a peer foe would be brutal. No air superiority. No green zones.

 

[Trefoil]

And they would turn to Congress to activate the Selective Service draft plans for medical personnel. That is what they have always done in the past.

I suppose so, but the number of physicians produced from such measures was clearly not enough given the current infrastructure we have built to have docs ready. It’s kind of like the pandemic. The world has a short memory, so we will inevitably stop stock piling PPE before the next major pandemic. Our bias towards optimism creates a blindspot to the worst case scenario.

 

[TheEarDoc]

I suppose so, but the number of physicians produced from such measures was clearly not enough given the current infrastructure we have built to have docs ready. It’s kind of like the pandemic. The world has a short memory, so we will inevitably stop stock piling PPE before the next major pandemic. Our bias towards optimism creates a blindspot to the worst case scenario.

Yep you have a point. We saw this in COVID-19 responses were several governors decided they would just call in the National Guard, so awesome you just pulled tons of providers away from their community healthcare institutions and sent them elsewhere, but hey you looked like you did something to fight COVID-19 so goody goody gumdrops to you!

 

[DOswag]

agree with what's been said above. DOD is cutting a lot from medical over the next few years and expect those leftover to just absorb a lot of it. I'm worried for docs in the future as I don't know a single doc in the military now that isn't already feeling overburdened with the patient care + the admin/officer stuff that's expected of them. Only going to get worse in a few years in my opinion.

Go to school, get trained, then look at what the military options are. I'd say overall I'm glad I did HPSP, but I'm also very much looking forward to when my commitment is complete and I can separate...