Military Medicine: A Different Path To Medicine

Session 162

Today, we talk to a student interested in military medicine. I share some parts of my story – and she shares hers!

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[00:21] Question of the Day

Q: “I’m interested in military medicine. And I saw that you were a flight surgeon in the Air Force. So I just wanted to ask what your experience was like from the moment you found out, you wanted to be go on that path and you became a flight surgeon?”

I’m prior enlisted and then I did my own thing after I got out. I used the GI bill. I got my undergrad in something completely different. I went to the job market, found out that I wasn’t really interested in doing banking anymore.

I wanted to do something where I could help people directly. So I quit my job this year, and then decided to go on this premed track. And I do want to go back into the military because I want to serve other servicemembers.”

A: A lot of people go in without that experience, and then they’re hit with the reality of the military is not what they thought it was. They own you and they tell you where to move and when you deploy.

And so, if you understand that part already and now you want to be a doctor, that sounds like a pretty great marriage there to understand why you want to go into military medicine. It’s a very great patient population. You already experienced putting on a uniform and being under the control of Uncle Sam, it sounds like you understand a lot of those nuances.

[02:30] My Military Medicine Experience

Unlike our student today who already pretty much understands what she’s getting into, I have a different experience because I went in without an prior experience.

I signed up for the HPSP program, not necessarily because I wanted to serve this. But because I wanted the money for medical school. This is not something I recommend, at this point, having gone through the process and understanding the negative parts of the military.

And so, I only recommend, ideally, that you sign up for HPSP if you want to serve. And then obviously having medical school paid for is a bonus on top of that.

I wanted to do orthopedic surgery that’s why I went to medical school to become an orthopedic surgeon. And I applied for orthopedics at the time that was required as a fourth year. Because you have to apply the military match and the civilian match.

The military said no. They said I didn’t get to be an orthopod and I had to do my internship year then apply again. I did my internship here, I applied again. But there’s really not much you can do to change your application in that short amount of time. And so I applied again, and I got a no.

Ultimately, I didn’t get to become an orthopedic surgeon, at least initially, because of the military. And that’s the first kind of bad thing that could happen for people going through the military route, whether it’s HPSP or the Uniformed Services University.

There are some other trainings potentially between first and second year if you’re not doing commissioned officers training between first and second year. But other than that, you go do your residency, or sometimes you just do an internship year like I did. And then you go and serve and our student has already experienced part of it. Then she’s just a doctor with a uniform on.

[05:20] Potential for Skill Atrophy

You may be limited in terms of the procedures you may be able to do or other aspects of whatever medical clinic you’re at. They may or may not just have the resources for you to do specific skills that you may want to keep up.

There are lots of military people who moonlight in the civilian world so they can keep up with skills in that aspect. So it really just depends on where you’re at, where you’re stationed, and what specifically you’ve been trained to do through residency, fellowship, etc.

'The military, at the end of the day, restricts your abilities to do what you want.'Click To Tweet

Whether that’s just being an enlisted person, a regular officer or or a military officer. At the end of the day, there are going to be limitations. If you’re a family practice doctor, the limitations are probably not much. But if you’re a neurosurgeon, there may be something there. Or if you realize you love Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (PM&R), and you’re an HPSP or USUHS member, you can’t match in PM&R.

[07:30] How the Military Determines Your Specialty

The military still racks and stacks. There is a rubric, and you get a certain number of points for your preclinical years of medical school. You get a certain number of points for your clinical years of medical school, for being prior enlisted, or for some research.

You may also get a program director discretionary points. If you hit it off with the program director but you struggled your preclinical years of medical school, they can just throw in some bonus points because they really like you. So they will then take those and rack and stack and they’re going to take the top five.

Now, our student is wondering if she could just join the military after residency that way she’s already in the field she likes. And she could but the downfall here is that you make a lot less in the military while you’re coming in with all your medical school loans. So it’s pretty tricky. Again, that gets to the fact that you shouldn’t be doing this for the money.

“Going to a civilian medical school, not having the military pay, and then joining the military, doesn't work because the loans are just too big.”Click To Tweet

[10:04] Special Opportunities for Joining the Military

I had amazing opportunities. I got to fly around the world, I got to fly an F-16. I got to be part of the hospital admin in my last three years. It’s basically the equivalent of a C-suite person, in my third year in as the Chief of Aerospace Medicine. I was the public health emergency officer. I I had lots of amazing opportunities for different types of exercises. There’s a lot of diversity and lot of fun things you can do.

'Opportunities are phenomenal in the military.'Click To Tweet

The other thing to potentially think about with the military is usually the longer that you’re in, the more other stuff you’re doing. In the military, you wear lots of hats. For the medical world, as you progress on, you’re getting more into leadership and less clinical. And so, if that doesn’t excite you, then that may be another thing to think about.

If you only want to do clinical stuff and you can’t stand the paperwork and leadership stuff and supervisory, then maybe that’s not a good fit for you as well.