Army Trauma Surgery/Emergency Medicine

[ericd8]

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[colbgw02]

A few exceptions notwithstanding, military hospitals do not see major trauma. And it's impossible to predict what the operational tempo will be in 10 years. There's a good chance you could go your whole time and never see a major combat trauma patient.

Others can speak to EM better than I, but the consensus seems to be that there's nothing special or exciting about military EM. That is, it's a lot like working at a community ER or urgent care clinic

If demographics are important to you, then there is no better patient population to treat, IMHO. However, you need to educate yourself about the realities of military medicine, particularly as you've stated interest in a specialty (surgery) and subspecialty (trauma surgery) where skill atrophy is a serious concern.

 

[jabreal00]

The only military facility that has a decent amount of trauma is SAMMC in San Antonio. It's a level 1 trauma facility and has a world renown burn center. That hospital sees civilian trauma. All the other training facilities are not level 1 and have a much lower acuity. Even if one deploys there's a variability in how much experience one gets. We have 7 surgeons in my clinic. Most have deployed over the past two years to Afghanistan. Only one saw regular trauma because of where they were at. The rest sat around and did one or two non-trauma cases (appendix/gallbladder) during their 4.5 months deployed. If you are really interested in ER/Trauma surgery civilian training may be the best option in an urban level 1 trauma facility. Your best bet in the military is to do ER training at SAMMC if you are Army or Air force. There are no trauma fellowships but you could always do it a a civilian sponsored fellowship (the military will pay your salary during the training).

 

[CrileDO]

A few exceptions notwithstanding, military hospitals do not see major trauma. And it's impossible to predict what the operational tempo will be in 10 years. There's a good chance you could go your whole time and never see a major combat trauma patient.

Others can speak to EM better than I, but the consensus seems to be that there's nothing special or exciting about military EM. That is, it's a lot like working at a community ER or urgent care clinic

If demographics are important to you, then there is no better patient population to treat, IMHO. However, you need to educate yourself about the realities of military medicine, particularly as you've stated interest in a specialty (surgery) and subspecialty (trauma surgery) where skill atrophy is a serious concern.

Do surgeons who spend years on active duty have difficulty with completely losing their skills when they apply for private practice positions after leaving the military?

 

[sonofva]

I find this statement interesting. What are deployments like for military doctors?

most people that i've talked to on my adts say that their deployments were boring. just a lot of sick call and administrative junk.

 

[alpinism]

most people that i've talked to on my adts say that their deployments were boring. just a lot of sick call and administrative junk.

This.

If your goal is to work in a high acuity inner city environment like Detroit Receiving, do not join the military.

The vast majority of .mil physicians (including EM and GS/trauma) do not see major traumas on a regular basis while deployed. On the USAF side, even at major theater hospitals like Bagram AB in Afghanistan, you can go weeks without seeing anything significant (this was back in '07, its likely even slower now). At other overseas bases its not uncommon to go your entire deployment and only see 1 or 2 traumas (mostly from accidents). Living stateside is similar but even slower.