Finances and Residency--Give It To Me Straight

[DCJenn]

Re: Finances and Residency--Give It To Me Straight

I was talking about this w/ my husband last night and he said you should try to find out how many AF path residents they typically take. I assume that the training will be at Wilford Hall.

If the AF typically takes 5 residents and you know of only 4 or 5 people who have applied for path, you can practically start house hunting in San Antonio. Remember, the AF will fill their slots FIRST and only then will they use civilian residencies.

Jenn

Re: Finances and Residency--Give It To Me Straight

I don't have much time for a reply right now, but I just want to say thanks for all the suggestions! In particular, the COL calculator was a big help--although I'm disappointed to see that nearly all the places DH applied have a higher COL than where we live now.

Also, regarding the AF, I think we have an OK chance of getting out of a military residency, if we choose to go that route. The AF has 2 in-service residency slots and 5 deferred slots, so, statisitically, we have a good chance of being deferred. Also, they had to extend their deadline for applying to pathology because they did not have enough applicants to meet their projected need of 7 new path residents, so I highly doubt that they would refuse to allow DH to do path. You're all right, though, that the AF does what the AF wants to do. However, I think it would be A LOT easier to follow orders to move to TX than it is to choose to try move away, ya know?

Thanks again, all!!!

Re: Finances and Residency--Give It To Me Straight

Do you know where the AF usually sends pathologists after residency? How do you feel about those places?

Re: Finances and Residency--Give It To Me Straight

Well, DH seems to think (based on what the pathology staff at Wilford Hall have told him) that pathologists are less likely to be deployed than some other specialists. For example, he says that there is only one pathologist currently in Iraq and that that person is Army. I have no idea whether that is true or not, but I do think the bottom line is that everybody in the military is at the whims of the government and can be sent just about anywhere. Do I like it? No. But, I lost any choice in the matter when DH joined up three years ago. Now I just have to try to make the best of it and let DH do what he thinks will make him happy.

[Cumberland]

Re: Finances and Residency--Give It To Me Straight

Don't they deploy a lot of residents as GMOs after they complete an intern year?

Not to scare you, but my DH considered military and they told him he would almost certainly be deployed as a trauma surgeon, although he has never operated on a male before

[DCJenn]

Re: Finances and Residency--Give It To Me Straight

It depends on the service and the specialty.

Most people I know or know of have finished training and then been deployed. Those people who are doing their paybacks as GMOs and then planning on residencies will be deployed ASAP.

Pretty much, unless you're doing FP, you're going to be deployed at some time. (for whatever reason, the FP docs don't seem to deploy as frequently. Maybe because they see all of the geezers)

Jenn

Re: Finances and Residency--Give It To Me Straight

Sometimes.

In the AF, one can be made a flight surgeon (basically, the PCP for aircrews) after completing an internship year. Some people choose to become flight surgeons because it gets them out of their commitment earlier. Other people have to go that route because they either didn't match into anything or because the AF has filled their quota for a certain specialty, and doing a flight surgeon tour probably beats completing a residency in a program you don't want. I suppose that some people are forced into becoming flight surgeons for other reasons as well, but again, the AF hasn't meet their projected need for pathologists this year, so I think DH is safe for now.

Anyway, I guess the take home message is that military medicine definitely has its drawbacks. Personally, I hope that DH and I walk away from this whole thing fairly unscathed!

Re: Finances and Residency--Give It To Me Straight

Yeah, and what Jenn said.

[Cumberland]

Re: Finances and Residency--Give It To Me Straight

DH works with a few military FPs who do prenatal care, and alot have been deployed. One was a 6 week postpartum mother of four who was deployed for 18 months!!!!!!!!

[mommax3]

Re: Finances and Residency--Give It To Me Straight

Yeah, about the FPs.....at the AF base where DH did his payback, all of the FPs deployed, as did all of the general surgeons, although at that point, the deployments were pretty short, at about 4 months or so. I think it just depends on where you are.

I am so, so grateful that DH never deployed, for the reason Cumberland mentioned. He would have been more stressed by what he would have been doing than he would have been by where he was, if that makes any sense. Although he did do a very intense T-surg rotation at the beginning of PGY-2. I remember this because I had a baby right before he started that six week block.

Sally

[peggyfromwastate]

Re: Finances and Residency--Give It To Me Straight

Also, I'm not sure if you get a different pay, but our income (we are interns) as full active duty Army is not $60K plus BAH, it's more like $60K including the BAH. And BAH varies hugely.

The best benefit for us about the military medicine, and which literally saves us about $1K a month, is health insurance. People have plenty of gripes about medical care in the military, but I haven't had any problems and coming from paying at least $1K a month pre-military, it is so nice for us to be able to see the doctors, or even go to the ER if it's really urgent, and not have to worry about copays. Plus the meds are paid for, and that saves us at least $300 a month. So health care is Huge to our family- I'm not sure about you but since you are looking to get pg and all that, it may be practical to think about.

ETA: COL out here does not allow for our family to do what we do with our income- we own a house and are contemplating "moving up" and I'm a SAHM with no consumer debt. We have other debt- like a Home Equity Line but we are pretty healthy financially, even though according to COL we are well below the poverty line.