I have to agree with student DO. I was going to pursue HPSP but, after learning more about it and talking to others about their experiences, I decided against it. The impression I got was that if you are not interested in military medicine and are simply doing it for the money, you are going to be miserable. If you are sure you want to do military medicine, by all means, do it. But, if you haven't already, make sure you get all of the information and talk to others who have done HPSP before you commit.
I also agree with studentDO in that WVSOM outshined all of the schools I interviewed at.
I have to admit that the lure of being an Army officer is still there. I am still thinking about it and the recruiter calls me daily to see if he can persuade me to fly to San Antonio and talk to the doctors there. LaVita is right, you should NOT do it just for the money, remember in the military you are an officer first and a doctor second, this is real and is not a joke. That doesn't mean you will be doing a lot of military stuff it just means that you can be ordered around my anyone who has a higher rank than you - even if it means that they are not the same educational level as you and some people have found this to be a nightmare.
My main concern is that these days (I verified this) you WILL be deployed first right out of residency (sometimes out of internship in the Navy and Airforce) to wherever they need you. I spoke to docs who came out of training and were in the desert the next day for 6 months. They say you only "pay back" your scholarship but if they are short on people (and they are short on docs since they can't fill the HPSP right now) they can keep you in indefinitely.
I talked to the Airforce and the Nvy as well, the Navy is the worst, right out of your sixth year (intern) they send people overseas to be GMO's. In the Airforce this happens because they don't have enough training spots so you get deployed for a while until you can re-enter the match for residency. The Army is the best bet, has the most training spots and they guarantee you will finish residency before being deployed and they only deploy for 6 months at a time. I have also heard of people loosing their medical license for not planning ahead, they get stuck in a sand pit where they cannot do CME's or update their ACLS certs.
The military medicine training is also questionable, some have said they had more experience in their clinical years than in 3 years of residency. The military USES you where they NEED you, it's not like a civillian residency where you get to rotate around and cover everything.
FWIW, I am STILL thinking about this program (believe it or not) - the money is tempting - but with a wife and 2 kids everyone has told me to stay away.
Oh well - I am ranting, if you know me at WVSOM you will get used to that
. Just my .02. See you in August!
P.S. They make it look competitive to get into this program, but since they can't fill the spaces in the program, they are taking everyone. I know of guys that had major medical disqualifications and they were waived and inducted. Basically if you are not a felon you are in.
