Military Medical Scholarships

[corn poffi]

Yup, what Peggy said. Not that I know about the military world, but trauma is not what people think it is! Wait til he gets to actual rotations before you take him seriously.

[LyssaOnTheBorderline]

OK first I must repeat my 'oh my dear lord' from earlier lol

And yeah, I think he got the trauma surgery idea from his time volunteering in the ER in Yakima (can't remember which one). For those of you who don't know that particular part of WA it's not exactly... tame. Lots of drug use, lots of gang violence, lots of violence in general really. Don't get me wrong there are parts of it that aren't bad... but for instance the places I would be able to afford to live... *shakes head* not where you want to be.

*sigh* Yes, deployment. Several of the men in my extended family were in the military at some time in their lives... I remember when I was a kid telling my mom that I could do that; I could be married to a military man. lol I am sure I COULD do it but now that I've got the man and I know just what it is to love someone like that (sappy, huh? *shrug* I can't help it, it still amazes me at every turn, lol)... at his commissioning the recruiter (and the officer that commissioned him) both mentioned the fact that trauma surgeons are in high demand in the field (makes sense) and that their deployments are often LONG. So I'll admit... no offense to anyone, and I will totally support him if that is what he ends up doing... I'd rather he decide on a different specialty by the time rotations are over. And I'm thanking God he's got four years to think about it *phew*

[diggitydot]

Yeah, Yakima has a shitty gang issue, but I've lived in cities with far higher crime rates. I wish I was joking.

Truly, his likelihood of staying in town for residency is kind of remote, so don't plan on it. I'm not saying it can't happen, just that chances are good that it won't.

[LyssaOnTheBorderline]

Oh I'm not planning on it at all. He would like to go to Alaska or Montana actually *shrug* Not entirely sure why the preference, lol I'd say snowboarding for Montana but I'm not sure why he thinks he'll have that much time

[poky]

Oh I'm not planning on it at all. He would like to go to Alaska or Montana actually *shrug* Not entirely sure why the preference, lol I'd say snowboarding for Montana but I'm not sure why he thinks he'll have that much time

Just FYI, I'm pretty sure the ONLY residency programs in AK and MT are family med (maybe an internal med?)...so, if he's going to do any other specialty, he's probably not going to do residency in either of those states!

[LyssaOnTheBorderline]

That's fine with me, lol Montana could be fun (different at least) but I've heard Alaska isn't much different from here... Maybe a little colder depending on where you are... Anyway there's plenty if time for him to change his mind to whatever he wants


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[peggyfromwastate]

And if he goes into surgery most likely he will be doing a residency at an army training hospital. If He does medicine (or family practice, Peds, the non surgery things) he will almost assuredly go to civilian programs. The military will occasionally send hpsp peeps to civilian residencies, but that's very unusual.

So as soon as he can figure out what he likes (sometime in early ms2) he should start looking into setting up his rotations at the military training hospital he wants. There are more choices with the army-- the biggies are tripler (Hawaii), madigan (Washington state), San Antonio (Texas), and Walter Reed (DC area).

It's a bit complex in the military match and any non hpsp friends and classmates will be following a very different path.

Don't bother asking recruiters about this. They know nothing about the medical corps. And trauma surgeons don't generally deploy longer than 8 months at a time-- as a surgeon. If they are in command the deployments can be longer. But that's WAY WAY EAY down the road. Not worth stressing in the least right now. Just an illustration if how a recruiter really knows very little about the medical corps and as a whole HPSP seems to confuse many military personnel in general!! (We are not hpsp but a lot of dhs colleagues are and so he knows plenty about that system through them.)

[LyssaOnTheBorderline]

Peggy, thanks so much I'll have to let him know all this... probably wait until AFTER finals though... Even this week with just 'regular' exams the poor boy has his head so full of information I'm surprised it isn't leaking out his ears!
But again, thank you, thank you, thank you


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[DCJenn]

Yes to everything Peggy has said. But- Peggy is nicer than I am so I'm going to just put it on the line for you:

1) Recruiters know nothing. NOTHING about the Medical Corps. Period. Their job is to bring in 18 year olds to the infantry.

2) The military in decides what you do. If you want to do trauma surgery (and really- he's way too freshly minted to know what he wants to do- my husband thought he wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon and he's a Child Neurologist...) and the Army needs trauma surgeons then chances are good. If they don't then you will be given the residency of their choice. It doesn't happen often but we're starting a draw-down which will limit things in the future. The only good news about this is that they're adding requirements to senior level attending staff that will mean that a lot will be getting out. (adding management requirements to their career path)

3) The Army's first choice is to train at an Army facility- it's cheaper. They also want them to rotate through other military and civilian hospitals. My husband was gone for most of 3rd and 4th years doing external rotations.

Good Luck!

J.

[LyssaOnTheBorderline]

*sigh* I think I'm starting to get... Anxious? *shakes head* I don't know, worked up somehow...
Now I'd like to talk to him about it NOW but I don't want him to get worked up over something he can't change before finals...
External rotations? What is the 'external' part? And when you say 'gone' you mean gone from you? The earliest I've been able to get him to think about marriage (also the latest, he wants to be married before rotations) is spring break of his second year... And he'd be gone?
Maybe 'depressed' is the word I was looking for *sigh*
Anyway, thank you.


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[DCJenn]

Gone as in my husband and I dated for 14 months (we met during his 3rd year of medical school) and total we were together in the same town at the same time for about 2.5 months. We got married the day after he graduated from medical school.

It's really important that they go though because where they rotate is also where they'll do residency. That will allow them to meet the people in the various programs and make the connections with the people who will make those decisions.

Then, they will also do rotations during residency- sometimes a lot like Peggys husband, sometimes not so much. My husband was required to cover Ft. Hood for a month a time during each year.

The one thing to remember about medicine is that they're never home anyway. It doesn't matter whether they're out of state or not, because if they're home they're either sleeping, cranky or eating. I find it easier to deal with things when they're gone for a specified period of time (weeks, months, years- it doesn't matter) than the coming and going and changing schedules. Whatever messes ME up the least is better.

You can't sweat it. There's no point.

J.

PS- my husband has been in for 20 years...

[peggyfromwastate]

I don't know that I can remember how long we were apart--- but it was a lot.

My husband advised at this stage to just focus on grades and doing the best in school as he can. That will open up doors for MS3 and MS4.

BUT, what we have seen time and time again (my husband worked with a lot of medical students in residency) is that the DO students in particular were unaware of how the process works. The setting up rotations, the rotating at military training facilities, the choosing of specialties... All of it...

Your SO will find that sometime in MS2 (I think we chose rotations around the Christmas break-- but my Dh went to USU which is all military peeps, and they get dibs for military rotations but some spots are held back for HPSP peeps) he will need to contact program directors from individual programs to set up rotations. His school will not facilitate this. He needs to decide where he wants to do his "civilian" rotations, as the military rotations are not completely funded for him. There is a learning curve, and I hesitate to say too much because we were not HPSP and a lot has changed in the 8 years since we were in that situation of setting up rotations.

Being in Yakima, he will plan on being AWAY (as in out of state or out of city, not within commuting distance) for most of his rotations I would think. Yakima is a small market- definitely he can do family practice there but I'm not sure much else. Whatever he knows he doesn't want to do as a career (he will probably have a vague idea of that as of the start of MS2, perhaps) he should try to set up as a "local" or "home" rotation. The things he thinks he may want to do for residency, it's critical that he gets those rotations set up for MS4 in the summer months. The military makes their decisions for match earlier than civilian, so I think the only useful rotations as a MS4 (where you apply to the program directly for your specialty of choice-- say if you want to do general surgery in Madigan, you will set up a general surgery rotation there during the critical months (August, September, and half of October).) Half of October because the military decides where the MS4s are going at a big meeting in October I think. The end of October I believe.

Rotations-- your guy will be studying the whole time he's not working. That's pretty much how it is from here on out. Another common mistake we've seen is people thinking "now that I'm in clinicals and I don't have exams every week it will be SO MUCH easier..." Wrong. You have a ton of responsibilities on your rotations, you are pimped by anyone senior to you (pretty much everyone) and will be feeling stupid every day. And then the cherry on the top is that you will have an exam for every rotation which you must pass, and the exam results will come into play for deciding if you match to the residency program you desire. My advice: your SO should be VERY VERY nice to the nurses on day 1. The nurses can make your SOs life a nightmare. And another common mistake some punk MS kids do is that they think they outrank a nurse because they are "medical" and the nurses are "support." NO no no no. No.

So away or home, mentally they are away more often.

Are you good on your own? Are you an independent person? I like my space, and I do better when Dh is not around me a lot. Sad but true. I desperately wanted to stay back in MD this year vs come and accompany him to fellowship. But he didn't want that, pitched a fit, said he wouldn't do fellowship which meant we'd be stationed in podunk, and so I kind of was backed into a corner. Now I think he's recognizing the wisdom of my desire to stay behind for stability, but he was too self involved (a common trait of medical people especially in surgery!) to see it then. No matter, we are here. But my point is that you have to be a highly independent person to make this thing work. Obviously you can do that. But I only get by with help from my iMSN buddies. That's so true. There are just some very difficult days in the process of medical school-residency-fellowship, lots of resentment, and lots of "what ifs".

Hugs---- And let your dh just study and get this year under his belt. He has time to research the ins and outs of applying and setting up rotations in the summer when he gets a break. (He's just in the first year right?) The key will be to set everything up, though. Too many people scramble at the last second and the programs only accept a certain number of med students per month. It's just how it is...

[LyssaOnTheBorderline]

*sigh* Wow. :I
Thank you so much ladies (and Peggy's husband ). I've got to print this all out and put it somewhere for when we need it.
Question: B. was told that there's not a lot of moving around for rotations... It sounds like, at least with the military, that is not the case, am I right? And I suppose it's too much for me to really go with him..? That was sort of the plan...
Actually I am a pretty independent person, I've lived alone for long enough I've had to be. Still, if he doesn't want to get married until spring of his second year(we've had this discussion and it sounded alright when we thought he'd be pretty stationary)... Independent or not that's not really how I want to start off my married life.
As for the studying, I don't mind that at all. He comes up for the weekends and that's practically all he does
Anyway thank you SO much, again As overwhelming as it might be I'm glad I know this stuff now so we won't be caught off guard later.
Oh, one more question... You all keep using 'DH', what do those letters stand for? I know they are used in regards to husbands and the like but... :blush: lol


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[DCJenn]

Theoretically it means "Dear Husband" but Dickhead applies pretty often, too.

People can do their entire medical school life at the same place but it's usually much better to get out there are meet the people. They do have committees and the residents and staff review resumes. They usually show pictures (I don't know if they can do that anymore but that's what they used to do) and see if anyone remembered the person and how they worked with others, etc. So- it's key to get to know people- especially if it's only based on a paper and if people remember your name.

J.

[LyssaOnTheBorderline]

LOL, I love it
Also good to know. Getting past the 'overwhelmed' bit this is excellent info to have, thanks again (and again and again, lol)


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