Thank you for the comment.
I also am potentially interested in serving for the military as well, although I am clearly still undecided.
I would be willing to take a slight financial and career choice hit because of it but I am nervous that it will be more than just a slight hit considering my goals. I started medical school at 24 and will not be finished with an internal medicine residency program until I am 30. If I plan to specialize in electrophysiology (something I am currently interested in) it would take 4 more years and I would not be an independent physician until I am 34 years old. At that point I only have 30-40 more years of my career left.
Add the military program to this and I would potentially have to complete 3 years of internal medicine active duty for the military before I can specialize (assuming they won't let me specialize first). If I then start the 4 year electrophysiology specialization I would be 38 by the time I was finished which is pretty old to be starting your desired career in my opinion. In addition, with the 6 year (I think) military reserve obligation I believe I could potentially be deployed at anytime during my 4 year fellowship which would significantly disrupt my progress and extend the time it takes for me to start my career.
This is why I really want to make sure that if I join the military I would be able to pursue my desired career without having any significant time disruptions (eg civilian/military residency followed by a 4 year fellowship and then 3 years of active duty in my specialty followed by reserves).
You're gonna be 38 at some point no matter what, I have people in my classes that were not starting med school until almost 34. Definitely a factor, I agree, but it helps if you focus on the journey as well as the end goal. HPSP is a 4 year commitment, after that is IRR. Also see here:
HPSP Fact Sheet
Someone else can double check me, but I've yet to meet a fellow who had been deployed during fellowship. Not that it can't happen though, anything's possible with Uncle Sam.
Thanks for the reply.
When you state "air force has the most civilian deferments of the branches" does this mean that it would be the best option for me if I want to pursue a civilian residency and fellowship?
More or less, although getting both civilian residency and civilian fellowship is less likely (not that it can't be done per say). There are a lot of things a medical officer does in addition to what a civilian doc would do. At the risk of being a broken record, google "operation bushmaster" for a little more insight. Note this is a USUHS things as opposed to HPSP but the idea behind the training's still there.
You can always look into direct ascensions and such. Essentially do all your civilian training then join, I believe the bonus here is ~400k w/ a 4 year commitment.
As for personal freedom, I was referring specifically to after medical school. I was trying to refer to the fact that the military has a large say in dictating where you go to residency, where you practice, what specialty you will be placed in, etc. At least that is how the blogs on student doctor network make it out to be. Please correct me if you think this is wrong.
That's correct. For the record while you may or may not get that pediatric oncology metabolic pacific sunfish neurosurgery spot, the vast majority of my attendings ended up where they wanted to be or are pleased with where they are. Again, just might be a more circuitous route.
On that note, I have another question about the HPSP program if anyone can answer it. Will joining the HPSP program have a large effect on where I can potentially be matched for residency. In other words, can the air force/army/navy prevent me from joining a civilian residency and prevent me from joining a subsequent specialty fellowship if they find that it will not be beneficial to their work force (that is, before my active duty and reserve time is completed). For example, say I wanted to join a 3 year civilian internal medicine program followed by a 2 year civilian cardiology fellowship directly after medical school. Can the air force/army/navy prevent me from joining a civilian internal medicine program and subsequently prevent me from joining a cardiology fellowship before I have served my active duty time if they choose to do so?
Yup, sorry, this is the military. Don't forget they have a broader purpose and it's called military
service for a reason (not being snarky, I promise). In my world --> "needs of the navy always come first"
Why such a hardcore focus on doing a civilian vs. military residency and/or fellowship?
As for the bare minimum question:
I have always been interested in the military. I come from a military family (ending with my father) and have had brief exposures to the military that I really enjoyed. However, I have never really had a chance to join or really experience the military first hand. This is the main reason I am slightly hesitant to go all in at this point. As previously mentioned, I also have the goal of practicing as a specialized physician and would prefer to accomplish this goal sooner rather than later.
For these reasons, I am hoping to commit myself to a minimum amount of military service to get a feel for what it would be like and to understand if the military would be the right choice for me. If I don't like it I want to be able to back out quickly and if I do I will strongly consider staying longer. It seems that the military's minimum obligations are quite long though and I have yet to find one that would fit well with my agenda.
Is there a MTF near you? Civilian students can do rotations there. Otherwise, yes that is a fair point. It's a hard thing to understand unless you've been in and I understand your hesitation.
Real talk (and please don't take this offensively): You appear to be holding on very, very tightly to
your goals and aspirations, otherwise eschewing commitment and any deviation from a very specific plan. There is
nothing inherently wrong with this, you gotta look out for #1 and I hold no judgement. However, in the military you've gotta realize
it's not about you. It's about that 20 yo marine PFC who was ambushed in an aid convoy and now wakes up with no legs, its the wife who's trying to understand gestational diabetes 1 week after her spouse is deployed and 1 month after they moved halfway across the country. It's about the 5 yo twins that will never see their father and the newly single parent desperately trying to make sense of it all, it's about that girl from the village in coastal Africa who's only hope for life is the Mercy or Comfort just showing over the horizon.
Romanticized or not, the military is a different world and does not fit everyone.