Medical Diplomacy - Humanitarian Missions

[navdoc47]

Increasingly, Navy medical teams are being deployed to 3rd world countries all over the world to 'win the hearts and minds'.

So if you're thinking about joining, realize that you'll not only serve military members and dependents, but when you deploy, you may be doing plenty of humanitarian missions in addition to the usual deployments. Hopefully you're excited about such prospects.

Some examples I found thru google:

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123063543

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12571711

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3rd_Marine_Logistics_Group

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[The White Coat Investor]

Increasingly, Navy medical teams are being deployed to 3rd world countries all over the world to 'win the hearts and minds'.

So if you're thinking about joining, realize that you'll not only serve military members and dependents, but when you deploy, you may be doing plenty of humanitarian missions in addition to the usual deployments. Hopefully you're excited about such prospects.

Some examples I found thru google:

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123063543

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12571711

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3rd_Marine_Logistics_Group

I find it difficult to go on "plenty" of these. Usually they're picked off by people who have friends in the offices these assignments come through to get out of regular deployments. Your mileage may vary.

 

[Homunculus]

as an army pediatrician, i'd do these in a heartbeat. i even attended a course specifically for military humanitarian medical assistance. but i've yet to hear of a single army pediatrician going on a humanitarian mission (what wasn't in residency training), but have heard countless numbers of army pediatricians sent to iraq/afghanistan as flight surgeons, GMO's, and brigade surgeons. i've known 2 be sent and serve as actual pediatricians in afghanistan, one was an intensivist and the other a general pediatrician.

i spent three years training in peds, now i'm going to be deployed to treat adults. if you want to join for humanitarian reasons, avoid the miitary and do it through NGO's.

--your friendly neighborhood humanitarian caveman

 

[NavyFP]

as an army pediatrician, i'd do these in a heartbeat. i even attended a course specifically for military humanitarian medical assistance. but i've yet to hear of a single army pediatrician going on a humanitarian mission (what wasn't in residency training), but have heard countless numbers of army pediatricians sent to iraq/afghanistan as flight surgeons, GMO's, and brigade surgeons. i've known 2 be sent and serve as actual pediatricians in afghanistan, one was an intensivist and the other a general pediatrician.

i spent three years training in peds, now i'm going to be deployed to treat adults. if you want to join for humanitarian reasons, avoid the miitary and do it through NGO's.

--your friendly neighborhood humanitarian caveman

Navy Pediatricians do get deployed for Humanitarian Ops. We send 1-3 peds on the hospital ships when they go out.

 

[The White Coat Investor]

My cousin is an army pediatrician who has done multiple humanitarian trips to Central America. Most were as an AF doc before he went green. Most recently, he was slated to go to Iraq but due to unfortunate family circumstances, won't be going any more. It is certainly possible, but not as easy to do as the OP seemed to indicate.