What do to in the Army to improve qualifications?

[kedhegard]

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I want to do a residency that I am as of yet uncompetitive for. I hope to do much better on my step 2 than I did on step 1 (better study habits), but this will not happen before the end of the military interview season.

Does anyone have any suggestions for improving my qualifications both between now and graduation, as well as possible transitional intern programs in the Army? Is it possible to do an intern year, then do some GMO service while shadowing the specialty I want to go into in my time off, then reapply for the residency? Would this make me more competitive? Any idea if my commitment time would go up, down, stay the same?

Ever hear of anybody doing anything like this? I would suppose it would be fairly common, but no one at my school seems to know what I'm talking about.

Thanks all.

 

[RichL025]

Hmm, can't help you but with the GMO part of your question, and the anecdote may be no longer valid, but here goes...

One of the GMOs I worked for did just that - did a surgical internship, then 3-4 years as a GMO. He had a _sweet_ schedule where he was working at, and he hung out with a civilian ENT guy in town, saw clinic with him, OR, etc. He was then able to successfuly match to a ENT residency in SAUSEC.

Why may that no longer be valid? Well, the army is less sanguine on people being GMOs nowadays, but I guess if you fail to match in your chosen specialty, and do a GMO tour anyway, you'll be in the same situation.

I honestly don't know if that makes you more or less competitive, after the GMO tour. On one hand it _seems_ like GMOs get a bit of preference for residency spots, but OTOH I've heard whispers that PDs don't like GMOs because of a relatively higher residency dropout rate (after having lived the life of Riley, poorly adjusting to difficult call schedules, etc) Also I've seen GMOs who had to repeat their internship year.

So take all the above info for what it's worth- 3rd hand 😉

 

[edmadison]

Whether you can do what you want depends on the specialty. The army is moving away from the GMO model to straight-through programs. For example, ortho is now a 5 year program where you match as a PGY-1. Other programs still have a PGY-2 match. One other thing, whether or not you are compeititve in a given field varies by the number of applicants. Last year, only 1 person was a non-select in Ortho, other years its much higher.

Good luck,

Ed

 

[GeoLeoX]

I want to do a residency that I am as of yet uncompetitive for. I hope to do much better on my step 2 than I did on step 1 (better study habits), but this will not happen before the end of the military interview season.

It has been a little while for me, but I thought that you had to take and pass (i.e., have your scores) for both steps I and II of USMLE for the military match.

Geo

 

[kedhegard]

That may be true, but I can't bank on definitely getting in simply on the hope of making thirty points higher. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to put a in a couple of years of hard work to get in.