I'm looking at going to USUHS in the Army and am trying to gather as much info as possible about military medicine after school. I was wondering if docs can volunteer for deployment? Also, do personnel have any input into where they get stationed?
Anyone can get into a unit that is deploying, just ask for it before you finsih school and you will have no problems if that is what you want to do. A
lso, if you are working at a hospital in the states, military one, there are always spots that come up for deployment. If you volunteer it is yours, sometimes they will volunteer you for it if you haven't deployed in some time. (most military docs that I have met would rather not deploy, see the negative posts by many of the bitter milmed docs on here about deployments). Some want to deploy and have no problem getting to do that. Some have been gone 40 out of 48 months in, they wanted that. Some have been in 7+ years and only done a 6 month rotation.
You have some input on where you want to get stationed. Obviously, you are more likely to be placed at one of the larger bases/posts (just a numbers thing), but you make a wish list and they try, although sometimes not so hard, to give you what you want.
You can also barter with your "branch manager" (human resources) to get what you want. Volunteer for a deployment somewhere, or another hardship tour, and talk them into giving you the assignment of your choice. That happens all the time. Likely, five people will post after me that this doesn't happen very much, and that the military is out to screw you, but really it is a numbers game. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. If you give a little more at first, you increase your chances of getting what you want later.
