Tell me everything you know about military medicine

[mtthwscott1]

I'm considering going through the military to get an MD. Of course, I'll be talking to recruiters and pre-med advisors about it but I want to know what some of you have to say -- maybe you've researched it already.

Specifically, I want to know what its like as far as choosing your own residency or specialty. Also, I want to know about the payback.

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[jillibean]

I'm considering going through the military to get an MD. Of course, I'll be talking to recruiters and pre-med advisors about it but I want to know what some of you have to say -- maybe you've researched it already.

Specifically, I want to know what its like as far as choosing your own residency or specialty. Also, I want to know about the payback.

I was also wondering about military medicine. I am interested in Peds and OB/Gyn, so I figured I would probably be last in line to get deployed. Any military people out there have advice?

 

[Croatalus_atrox]

You know, there's an entire subforum on SDN devoted to military medicine. Interestingly enough, it happens to be titled "Military Medicine". Spend some time reading thru that forum, especially the FAQs, because all of your questions have likely been asked a million times before.

 

[jillibean]

You know, there's an entire subforum on SDN devoted to military medicine. Interestingly enough, it happens to be titled "Military Medicine". Spend some time reading thru that forum, especially the FAQs, because all of your questions have likely been asked a million times before.

Ohh... its called military medicine, no wonder I couldn't find it. 🙂

 

[gainor848]

I was also considering doing a military scholarship but after I researched it I decided against it. From what I have read, the payback for a 4 year scholarship is 4 years active duty and then 4 years reserve, which means you can still be called out even though you've already served your 4 years active. Also, you must go through a military match program if you take the scholarship and if you match with the military you HAVE to do a military residency unless they give you permission to do a civilian residency (rarely happens). If you're considering the NAVY, most students are forced to do GMO's (there's plenty on that in the military medicine forum) which keeps you in the military even longer. So basically you will probably do 4 years residency, 4 years active duty, and 4 years reserve = 12 years in the military. For me that was too long...especially when I consider that I want to have kids before i'm 40! Most people I've talked to basically say the military owns you after you sign. So...even though it sounds like a great deal, you might want to research every aspect of the scholarship (that most recruiters neglect to tell you).

 

[NonTradMed]

I was also considering doing a military scholarship but after I researched it I decided against it. From what I have read, the payback for a 4 year scholarship is 4 years active duty and then 4 years reserve, which means you can still be called out even though you've already served your 4 years active. Also, you must go through a military match program if you take the scholarship and if you match with the military you HAVE to do a military residency unless they give you permission to do a civilian residency (rarely happens). If you're considering the NAVY, most students are forced to do GMO's (there's plenty on that in the military medicine forum) which keeps you in the military even longer. So basically you will probably do 4 years residency, 4 years active duty, and 4 years reserve = 12 years in the military. For me that was too long...especially when I consider that I want to have kids before i'm 40! Most people I've talked to basically say the military owns you after you sign. So...even though it sounds like a great deal, you might want to research every aspect of the scholarship (that most recruiters neglect to tell you).

Completely agree. I had a friend who was desperate in need of money because she refused her parents' help and was attending an expensive private med school. However, a reading of the fine print indicated you'd be attached to the military for a very long time thereafter. I, too, briefly thought about using the military to pay my way through med school. However, after doing some research, the one underlying theme is that you must want to be in the military anyway if you want to do military medicine. Ask yourself that before signing on. It's a good deal if you like or do not mind being in the military for a while. Otherwise, just go civilian and pay the money back like the rest of us.

 

[Bubblehead-to-MD]

the one underlying theme is that you must want to be in the military anyway if you want to do military medicine.

This is absolutely a must! You will read a lot of negative comments about military medicine on SDN - it does have its problems - but I think you will find that many of these people were not really interested in the military - they signed the contract only for the scholarship money. You definitely have to consider your reasons for pursuing this - there are many ways to take care of the debt associated with medical school!

 

[edmadison]

I was also wondering about military medicine. I am interested in Peds and OB/Gyn, so I figured I would probably be last in line to get deployed.

Think again, pediatricians are some of the most deployed practitioners in the Army. We are third behind surgery and EM. In our department of 30+ pediatricians virtually every able bodies staff member has been deployed, is deployed or is on target to be deployed in the next year. Also, deployment for general pediatricians is 12 months and that only counts time in Iraq, not training or transit time. THus, deployments can last 15-16 months. At least you'll get one 2 week block to see your family!

Ed

 

[DoctorPardi]

I agree with the above posters about the time committment post graduation but one other thing to consider is the money you'll be making.

-Graduate medical school basically free of debt
- Start your residency with the millitary making around $80,000/year with some type of special captain's pay (any millitary docs correct me if I am wrong about this amount)

So you're up at least 100 grand on most non-millitary grads, and you're out earning non-millitary grads by 30-40 grand for four years. So that is about a $220,000 swing from millitary to non-millitary, if you only take into account the residency years.

The problem is, once you get out of your residency you will be making only slightly more than you were making during residency while non-millitary doctors are getting a significant increase in pay.

-Do your four year active duty time and get paid significantly less than civillian doctors. Over four years, taking into account interest on student loans and the added money you earned over them in residency, you may still come out on top. This may be especially true if you're going into a field like peds, which isn't know to pay a lot anyway.

Note: It has been over a year since I did any real research about millitary medicine, so if my numbers are wrong I apologize and please correct me. Also I have decided against millitary medicine, because I feel like I'd rather not be in a long term contract with our government that may negatively effect my career/day to day life.

 

[DoctaJay]

My Aunt did it and she wouldn't even suggest that someone she hates do it. Now she actually signed up after her residency, so she really choose to join, but they truly own your life when you make that commitment.

 

[greytmedic]

I was in the military for a while as an enlisted man. I was in the National Guard for six years but was activated twice. I did find I learned and matured a lot in the military and have no regrets.

However, if you are talking to recruiters it is best to think of them as used car salesmen. If they promise you anything, and I mean anything, make sure it is explicitly spelled out in your contract. If they promise to take you out to lunch after you sign, get it in writing. If a military recruiter tells you that you can do something in the military, he or she means "the possibility exists that someone in the military will get to do what you want to do." If they tell you that you can do something in the military it does not mean you will actually do it in the military. That is why everything that you want needs to be spelled out precisely in the contract.

 

[Croatalus_atrox]

This is absolutely a must! You will read a lot of negative comments about military medicine on SDN - it does have its problems - but I think you will find that many of these people were not really interested in the military - they signed the contract only for the scholarship money.

I definitely think there was also an element of deception by recruiters as well. At the time when the "negative" SDN members accepted the HPSP, there wasn't a whole lot of information available to help them make their decision beyond that offered by the recruiters. There certainly weren't sites like SDN out there where experienced military physicians could offer their stories and advice to med students interested in the HPSP. At best, an interested med student might have known a long-separated former military doc or two; more likely, they'd have been put in contact with carefully selected physicians/shills whose answers echoed the recruiter party line. The one-sided information flow definitely helped military recruiters sell the program to debt averse med students. Now that there are sites like SDN that offer the experiences of military physicians as counterpoint, the recruiters are having a more difficult time getting med students to buy their used-car salespitch.

While the conventional wisdom now is that you shouldn't sign up for the HPSP unless you'd want to be in the military without it, it wasn't always so well known. No health professions recruiter in his right mind would ever dispense advice so obviously detrimental to meeting recruiting goals. Before SDN was around, who would you hear it from then? Maybe some former military physician, if his experience wasn't woefully out of date, considering the rapid changes in military and civilian medicine.

So cut them some slack and try to see where they're coming from before dismissing their motives as purely financially driven.

You definitely have to consider your reasons for pursuing this - there are many ways to take care of the debt associated with medical school!

Agreed.