prelim surgery question

[docpetey]

hey everyone,

i'm an Air Force HPSP'er and had a question about doing a non-designated prelim general surgery year after graduation.

- is it possible to get a civilian deferrment for a prelim surgery year in the AF? (nobody got a civilian PG1 surgery year in the 2005 AF match...i don't know if it's because no one asked for it, or if it's not possible).

- what type of GMO tour does one do after a year of prelim surgery? i can understand that after a transitional year you will have some experience with primary care, but probably not so much with a prelim surgery year. do you still serve as a flight doc?

thanks for your time!

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[Galo]

Ah, read my decline of military medicine post. Its not meant to scare you, but you should know what's coming up.

You will not get defered because the AF needs GMO's. People they can stick in an ever increasing primary care clinic type area. You can then request to go to the AMP course to be a flight doc, but you will be doing primary care, and still have no specific residency training. You need to decide what type of doc you want to be, and get residency trained, whether its in the AF or not, and then you will have more doors open to you, than if you are just a GMO with no residency training, and they you decide, like most intelligent physicians, that the military is sucking your life, and you need to get out, and then you have to start looking for a residency and you are 2-3 years behind everybody else. Just get your training out of the way.

Good luck

 

[docpetey]

well, i don't want to do a transitional year or a prelim surgery year. i'd rather start on my residency

in the case that i cannot get an AF spot or civilian deferment for my uber competitive specialty, i know i'll have to do a transitional year or prelim surgery year.

since i want to do a surgical subspecialty i'd rather do a prelim surgery year in a civilian program.

so my question is...
- what is the likelihood of getting a civilian deferred prelim surgery year?
- and if i do a prelim surgery year what type of GMO tour will i be able to do, will it be the same GMO tour as if i had done a transitional year?

i know i'm making this more complicated than it is.