So you want to be a United States military
doctor. You want to serve your country, travel around
the world, and be at the cutting edge of medical technology. This is what it means to be a military doctor,
and we’ll help you decide if it’s a good field for you. Dr. Jubbal, MedSchoolInsiders.com. Welcome to our next installment in So You
Want to Be. In this series, we highlight a specific specialty
or discipline within medicine, such as being a military physician, and help you decide
if it’s a good fit for you. You can find more specialties on our So You
Want to Be playlist. Military medicine is widely misunderstood
by us civilians. We’re going to be comparing military medicine
to civilian medicine, so it will make the most sense if you are familiar with the civilian
medical training process. If you’re not, then first watch this video
for a brief overview . To become a physician in the military, there
are two main paths to choose from: the Health Professions Scholarship Program, or HPSP for
short, and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, also known as the
USUHS. HPSP is the more common path of the two, whereby
you go to any medical school, whether osteopathic or allopathic, and here’s the kicker: your
tuition is entirely paid for and you also receive a monthly stipend for living expenses. For the most part, your medical training is
pretty similar to that of your civilian counterparts. However, as a HPSP recipient, you will have
basic military training, most commonly during your second year of medical school. During your clinical years, meaning third
and fourth year, you are usually granted the opportunity to become “active duty” and
rotate at military hospitals if you choose. So what’s the catch? The United States military paid for your medical
school education, so it’s only fair to pay it back. Generally speaking, there’s a 1 to 1 payback
in service to the military under HPSP. That means if you graduated medical school
after the traditional 4 years, you are required to be a physician serving in the military
for at least 4 years after completing your training. While you are of course being paid when you
are serving as a physician, note that military compensation rates are usually lower than
civilian counterparts. The main benefit to HPSP is that you have
complete flexibility to where you attend medical school. Want to go to UC San Diego and enjoy the awesome
weather? No problem. What about staying at Ohio State to be close
to family? Also totally fine. The downside is that unless you’re attending
a medical school that has several HPSP recipients, you will be isolated from the rest of the
military medical training process. You won’t be exposed to the military match
process, the military in general, and you won’t be participating in drills or field
exercises. The USUHS is the military’s medical school. Like HPSP, tuition is completely free, but
rather than a small stipend for living expenses, you’ll be serving as an active duty 2nd
Lieutenant and paid as such, which is around $40,000 per year base pay, with about another
$20,000 of non-taxable income for housing. The most obvious downside is that you won’t
have a choice in where you attend medical school - you’ll have to attend USUHS, which
is located in Bethesda, Maryland. Additionally, the payback period is longer
than HPSP at 7 years on average. That being said, there are several benefits
to this path. You’ll be fully integrated into the military
medical training system from the get go, and that means many more opportunities, unique
experiences, and full immersion into the military culture. Of course, you’ll be participating in field
exercises, but it gets much more exciting than that. For example, you can gain early exposure and
do rotations in humanitarian medicine, disaster medicine, rotate across the U.S. and even
internationally. The world of military medicine shares many
similarities with civilian medicine, but is in some ways a world of its own. As a military physician, it’s not only necessary
for you to be a specialist in your field, but also a competent and flexible generalist
while deployed. For example, a general surgeon, while deployed,
may be asked to do cases more typically reserved for a neurosurgeon, otolaryngologist, or urologist. Alternatively, a pediatrician may be deployed
as a battalion doctor, the military equivalent of a primary care physician. This is a difficult and stressful aspect of
military medicine, but it’s mitigated by a strong support system and excellent training. You’ll always have someone to call to ask
for help or clarification. And these cross-specialty responsibilities
are only reserved while you’re deployed. Back home, you’ll stick to working within
your intended specialty. The military match process is an entirely
different animal. The regular civilian match occurs in March,
but the military match occurs in December. All specialties are still available for residency
training, however the military is working to curtail the number of “non-deployable
specialists.” For example, the military will still train
pediatricians but may limit additional subspecialty training in fellowship. Once you graduate medical school and start
residency, you are promoted to captain in the Army and Air Force, or to Lieutenant in
the Navy. A majority of graduates match into their intended
specialty of choice. For the Army that number was 85% in 2018. The Air Force’s most recent published number
was 85% for 2017. Taking into account specialty and location,
in 2016 72% of USUHS graduates got their first choice of specialty and site (across all branches). The Navy is a bit different in that the majority
of their graduates will complete an intern year and do a General Medical Officer Tour
prior to completing residency. A General Medical Officer, or GMO for short,
is essentially a primary care plus doctor. After completing intern year, GMO’s are
assigned to different units. Depending on their unit, they will undergo
additional training, lasting months to years, to best be in service of their unit. For example, Navy flight doctors will go to
flight school where they will learn not only about the physiology involved in flying fighter
jets and helicopters, but they themselves will also learn to fly. They’ll work with pilots, go in jets, and
experience multiple aspects of the unit. The goal is to make them experts in their
respective fields. GMO units have a wide range, from flight medicine
to dive medicine, and much more. As a GMO, you can expect to get significant
field experience and even deploy, with tours usually lasting 2 to 3 years. During this time you will be treated and salaried
as an attending physician. GMO’s are colloquially referred to as “surgeons,”
such as flight surgeon, dive surgeon, etc. However, they are not surgeons. If you want to be a surgeon and actually do
surgery, the military has training programs for the traditional surgical specialties such
as general surgery, otolaryngology, orthopedics, urology, etc. If you don’t become a GMO, you will proceed
with residency training in a similar capacity to civilians. The main difference is that you will be required
to fulfill certain military requirements such as physical fitness tests, drills, and online
training. Some programs offer the opportunity to attend
military schools, such as airborne, air assault, or flight medicine. Those that fail to match will complete a transitional
year and they will reapply during the subsequent match. If they go unmatched again, they will go on
to become a GMO. Navy graduates have the highest rate of graduates becoming GMO’s. This has nothing to do with the applicants
— it’s just part of Navy medicine to have GMO’s with units. The lowest rate for GMO’s is in the Army
with the Air Force in the middle. Military medicine is certainly not for everyone. Here’s how you can decide if it’s a good
fit for you. First consider the downsides. If any of these are deal breakers for you,
then it’s likely not a good match. The average military physician makes approximately
$150,000 to $200,000 per year, depending on your rank, although that is not fully accounting
for specialty bonuses. As a civilian, you can make much more, depending
on your specialty. As a primary care doctor, you’ll be making
a similar amount, but as an orthopedic or neurosurgeon, you’ll be making 2-3x that
amount. As a military physician, you don’t have
much control over where you’ll be living and practicing medicine. While you can certainly submit preferences,
it’s ultimately up to the military to determine where you are most needed. Additionally, after residency you can be deployed
at any time, and that usually means significant time away from your family and loved ones. There are of course risks if you are deployed
to active war zones. If you’d like to subspecialize with fellowship
training, understand that while it is certainly possible, the military limits the number of
fellowship trainees every year. Between 2016 and 2018, only about 50% of Army
doctors who wanted to do a fellowship were allowed to do so. That said, if you are permitted, military
physicians typically go to top flight fellowship programs. Lastly, as they say in the military, you need
to “embrace the suck.” If you are in military medicine, you will
be deployed, and you will find yourself in conditions that are not comfortable. Military medicine requires a greater level
of flexibility and creativity than civilian medicine. Think of the generalist having to perform
specialist surgeries while deployed. Additionally, you will have to work in austere,
unique, and changing environments. Military medicine can be practiced in active
war zones, areas recovering from conflict, pandemics such as Ebola, humanitarian missions,
global training exercises, and areas subject to natural disasters such as hurricanes and
tsunamis. Military medicine allows you to serve your
country, see the world, be with America’s finest, get additional training, work with
world leaders in the field, push yourself, and do things you never thought would do. It’s not for everybody, but for those who
do pursue it, there is nothing quite like it. If you’re wondering how I know so much about
military medicine, it’s because of our awesome team of physicians at Med School Insiders,
several of whom are current military physicians. Maybe you need help deciding if military medicine
is right for you, or want to ensure you’re as successful as possible given its unique
training intricacies. Regardless of your situation, our team at
Med School Insiders can help. Our team of over 60 physicians are on standby,
here to serve you in helping you become a future physician. With our extensive experience and broad range
of expertise, from civilian to military, primary care to plastic surgery, we can help students
from any background, regardless of their goals. If you have a highly unique non-traditional
story or very specific goals in the type of medicine you want to practice, chances are
we’ve successfully helped students in similar situations get to where they want to be. We’ve helped over 1,000 students in the
last year alone, and they’ve left us raving reviews. See what’s made us the fastest growing company
in this space and learn more at MedSchoolInsiders.com. What type of doctor should I cover in the
next So You Want to Be video? Let me know with a comment down below. If you enjoyed the video, please give us a
thumbs up as it keeps the YouTube gods happy. As always, thank you all so much for watching. Much love to you all, and I will see you guys
in that next one.
