National Health Service Corp

[finnpipette]

If you take out a scholarship through the national health service, can you pick which needy community you work in after residency, or do they just place you somewhere in the US?

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[velouria]

My understanding is that you find the job yourself, but it has to "qualify" as being in an underserved area. (However, I looked at their posted jobs and they're in all kinds of areas - urban, rural, etc.)
You are also able to work in US territories outside of the continental US.

But you might want to call them and double check!

 

[WuzUpDoc]

does anyone know anyone who participated in this?? how was it? is it worth it? i've been thinking lately that I would like to start off working in underserved areas anyway, but i am kinda worried about the idea of being sent "anywhere." thanks!

 

[quideam]

Are you allowed to specialize in emergency medicine if you do the Health Service Corps. scholarship? I know that it's not technically a 'primary care' field, but it is a very general sort of field where you're trained to do many things....

- Quid

 

[topherius]

My boss did it. I haven't talked with him much, but it sounded like a nice deal for him. He managed to swing a top, expensive school and come out with very little debt.

I don't know about the ER thing, but you can access the scholarship bulletin at http://nhsc.bhpr.hrsa.gov/applications/2004ScholarBulletin.pdf

It starts to get interesting around page 19. It looks as though ER would not be supported, but I just skimmed it.

One other thing that hasn't been mentioned on this thread is that, if you change your idea about specialty or the scholarship in general, it turns from a grant into an extremely unforgiving loan with a shorter-than-average payback schedule and a high interest rate. Just something to keep in mind if you're considering it.

 

[burlypie]

I don't think emergency medicine qualifies for this -- to my knowledge it's only open to peds, family practice, internal medicine, and OB/Gyn. Really it's just the primary care specialties to encourage access to continuity of care, which emergency services don't provide.