Military Medical Scholarships

[L.Jane]

Pebbles- you know my beloved is back at WRAMC for a year, right? We should all try to meet sometime when I'm in town. There are a few others liike L. Jane nearby, too.

J.

Im so in for a get together. Pebbles and I had a great time at lunch today. An hour was gone before I looked at the clock.

[rubybullet]

Thanks! He has talked to a few recruiters and my brother whom is in the Marines for 25years. The recruiters he has talked to haven't promised anything like location, they just said there are many places they could relocate you and your family but about 2 of those places your family could not come. Cannot remember the names of those places. He was told however that he has to be a certain weight and has to pass other tests in order to be considered for the scholarship. It's appealing to me because a huge weight would be lifted off my shoulders not having to pay for all the bills including a mortgage every month and go back to school. Granted I know we could take out loans, but the thought of being hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt is not too exciting to me.

[peggyfromwastate]

Location is dependent on what branch you are in, to some degree, and what your specialty is. If you subspecialize (fellowship after residency) you have a greater chance of being stationed at one of the major medical centers in the Army. A greater chance, not a done deal. AND they can put you in any center they want. You really don't have a lot of say in the matter, although they ask your opinion to make you feel like you do lol.

DH had to get in shape to get into the military medical school. He lost some weight, but he never hits their height/weight standard. He just doesn't have that build. As long as he passes the PT test, which he always does, they don't worry about his weight. If he were to fail the PT test, he's have problems...

The places your family can't come are usually 1 year tours- a 2 year tour is accompanied. In DHs field there is only 1 of these places, except for deployment for which obviously the family doesn't come along. For DH, this site is usually available for families, but most people aren't willing to move there for 2 years. (It's Korea, which I hear isn't a bad base and some families really enjoy the experience, it's just really far away!!)

If he's serious about it, I would have him ask questions about lifestyle, etc. at the sites where he interviews if he does that. He should get in touch with program directors. They'll put a spin on things too, but not like recruiters who will spin from a place of no information. I don't blame recruiters for misleading, actually, because medical is pretty different than other aspects of the military.

Anyway, good luck!

ETA: I don't know what stage in training you are, but if he hasn't started medical school yet, then don't talk to program directors!! Just ask a lot of questions at USU if he comes to interview here, and if there are any HPSPs at the program where he is planning to attend otherwise, talk to them before signing up. They will have some idea for that specific program.

[DCJenn]

If you want to get an idea of the hundreds of places that military medicine staffs,just go on to the website of the various specialties- they have docs everywhere from the Academies to Afghanistan to ships at sea. Huge bases (Ft. Hood) and less huge. Crappy locations (Ft. Irwin/29 Palms/Edwards AFB is one of the worst. Edwards is bit away from the other two but they're all in the armpit of California.) and fantastic spots. and no, you have the illusion of choice but wipe the actual thought that you'd control where you'd go right out of your head. It's worked out for us, SO FAR but one never knows.

Recruiters know nothing about military medicine, as Peggy says. Honestly, they have enough to manage what with knowing all of the ASVAB based service specialties. and, in medicine, you're not ever enlisted- you're automatically brought in as an officer which is also different. (same thing with law, veterinary and dentistry.)

Jenn

[peggyfromwastate]

AND to make things more complicated, in my DH's specialty it's getting more and more common for an Army guy to be sent to an AF site, or Navy, and vice versa. Usually this is something "worked out" amongst the different consultants, and usually everyone wants to go wherever they end up, but... Who knows in 10 years?

Are you willing to go with the flow??

If DH doesn't do a fellowship, it's most likely he would only be stationed at one of 17 different bases. If he does get the fellowship, probably 1 of 3. And although Jenn shudders at the thought of the Cali bases, I shudder at the thought of the MANY deep south places... Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi!! NOOOOO. That's one reason why I'm all for the fellowship!

[DCJenn]

It's probably related to the proximity of the in-laws!

J.

[peggyfromwastate]

That would do it!

Alligators, fist-sized roaches, hurricanes, tornadoes vs IN LAWS... I see your point.

[LyssaOnTheBorderline]

Oh my dear lord I shouldn't have read this >.< Breath, he' only in his first semester, there's time to adjust to this all...
Mines in the Army, BTW , was (still is, sort of) thinking trauma surgery but as we all know they can change their minds a million times when they first start out, lol


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[DCJenn]

Yes, and with the military, it all changes all the time anyway.

J.

[diggitydot]

Oh my dear lord I shouldn't have read this >.< Breath, he' only in his first semester, there's time to adjust to this all...
Mines in the Army, BTW , was (still is, sort of) thinking trauma surgery but as we all know they can change their minds a million times when they first start out, lol


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He has a looooooong time and a lot of rotations to experience before he has to make any kind of decision. Tons of opportunities to change his mind between now and then.

[LyssaOnTheBorderline]

lol and I am sure he shall change it MANY times before the end


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[peggyfromwastate]

My dh does a lot of trauma surgery with ENT. And a ton ton of reconstructive. He was in the top percentile for rhinoplasty (as in the ENT resident with the most rhino plastics in the whole country last year). Part of that is working at Walter Reed (now in Bethesda) where the soldiers mostly rehab from the war-- at least for reconstructive stuff.

Anyway, there are ways to get the trauma surgery rush without the gen surg route---

And lots of time to change ones mind!!

Feel free to pm me-- I can get your guy in touch w my dh for "career counseling" lol. The military match process (and Army match for that matter) is very very different from the civilian side. And your SO will have to start setting up away rotations etc soon.

Fun times...

[corn poffi]

Welcome! Just to chime in...what a junior medical student thinks trauma surgery is like is vastly different from what it's actually like. It's obviously different in the military, but if he ever goes the civilian route, he might be surprised. And not necessarily in a good way.

[peggyfromwastate]

Military and civilian residencies are basically the same-- they follow the same acgme guidelines and most military residencies involve a significant amount if time on away rotations at civilian institutions. My dh worked 9+ months away at civilian hospitals, and while "local" he worked about 40% of the time in civilian hospitals. The difference comes into play more when you are at your home site-- and military residents have a different trauma experience due to the types if injuries the soldiers ate sustaining. They get the standard faire of trauma surgery, but that's the kicker there.

On the flip side, my dh had significantly fewer cancer procedures than his non military counterparts--- the military population is "healthier" as a whole. (And younger).

But everyone has to get the basic numbers for the acgme accreditation.

Of course I'm referring to ENT mostly as that's my world, but we know trauma surgeons and general surgery peeps. Surgery in the military is very different from medicine-- so I've heard from medicine ppl who do not one away rotation. It just depends.

But yeah-- trauma surgery pretty much universally sucks and with the military you have the added bonus of almost assuredly going on a deployment right away. Because trauma surgeons are very much in demand on the field.

[spotty_dog]

My husband thought going into medical school that he'd like orthopedic surgery. By the time he got his first exposure to actual surgeons and a clinical rotation in surgery, he basically ran screaming. While he's a "tinkerer", the surgical lifestyle was NO fit for him. I wouldn't listen to anything that a MS-1 has to say about their eventual specialty preference.