Med school and Military

[Guest Zuckman]

Hey guys,

Do you know of how this works? Do you guys have any links on this. I'm assuming one has to stay in the military for ~5 yrs after med school but everythings paid for so that's a big bonus. What are the pros/cons of doing medschool thru the military.

Zucker

[Guest QM6]

Hi Zuckman,

 

Are you in med school already, or thinking of it once you're in? I signed up under the Medical Officer Training Plan in my 2nd year at Queen's, and got the "full-deal" (or as "full" as one could get at the time); now I'm off to UBC for my Family Medicine residency. The details are on www.forces.ca/physician.

 

In point form, the pros and cons as a med student:

 

Pros

- your last 3 years of tuition and mandatory fees covered

- your last 3 years of textbooks/instruments/photocopying/etc subsidised (not necessarily fully-covered)

- a salary throughout med school (~$40-45K/y - see the link above for the latest)

- and a higher salary during residency than any of the provinces' contracts (~$50-52K/y, vs ~$38-40K/y)

- a signing bonus, depending on how far along you are when you sign up ($40K if you're in 2nd year, $75K in 3rd, $110K in 4th - again, see the link for more up-to-date numbers)

- depending on what city you're going to school in, a monthly cost of living allowance (don't expect too much though... in Kingston it's ~$16/mo)

- full health and dental coverage

- pension contributions

- travel allowance to visit home on holidays

- military training/courses/work experience during summers off (after you take your entitled leave) - but if you have mandatory med school courses/projects/rotations, those obviously take precedence

 

Cons (though that's a relative term)

- have to commit to Family Medicine - it really is hard to know what you want to do 'til you've done it in clerkship (and even then you're never really sure), so committing to FM so early can be a "con". But if you wait, and choose FM on your own later, and want to join the military at that point, your signing bonus is that much greater.

- have to commit to 4 years return-of-service after FM residency - at any base/deployment they need a physician. The postings vary year to year; the link lists all the bases with clinics, but which ones will need new doctors is pretty unpredictable.

- any electives you do in med school once you've signed up are limited to Canada only - military rules.

- have to clear holiday and travel requests with the military - I haven't had any problems whatsoever, but it is an extra bit of paperwork.

- have to go to a military clinic when you want to see a doctor (for something non-emergent): you can't go to your regular doctor or to your university student health service anymore, b/c you're covered by military health, not your provincial health plan. This was kind of a pain, b/c student health is so convenient on campus, whereas the base clinic was a 45-min walk away.

 

That's all I can think of now... I'll leave it to someone more in-the-know to talk about pros/cons while in residency/practice (though I can take a stab at it... once I'm off call =) ). But from the med student perspective, it's definitely a big commitment, that sets in pretty fine detail how your life will go for up to the next 9 years, and it's really something you can't do just for the money. Be sure to consider where you see yourself career-wise, significant other-issues, family, how you can handle unusual environments, unpredictability, moving around, etc...

 

Of course, moving on and specialising in surgery, anaesthesia, psychiatry, etc is still an option after your service, and being in the military doesn't mean you can't have a family (far from it); they take pretty good care of you, from the admittedly little experience I've seen over my 3 years in. If you're up for it, it promises to be a pretty interesting, different kind of practice.

 

Good luck!

[Guest QM6]

Oh, and you'll find contact info on that site to talk to the recruiting experts, and they can set you up with a practicing military physician - definitely best to hear it all first-hand than whatever happens to come through this tired, groggy clerk on-call... =)

[Guest Zuckman]

Hey QM6,

That's some good info. Thanks for the link. I'm not in med school yet but I'm definitely thinking about this military idea. Good luck with everything....I'm gonna spend the next lil while researching this idea.

Zucker

[Guest mesoderm]

Why do you have to commit to family medicine?

[Guest QM6]

Hi Mesoderm,

 

Because FM gives you the breadth and depth of training to be a useful physician wherever and whenever the military needs you somewhere - base, ship, camp overseas, etc. And there's a huge shortage of physicians, so this is the quickest way to get new doctors in uniform into service.

 

Specialists are still needed, but not in the same numbers as general duty medical officers - once you've done your return of service, you can apply for another residency and work as a specialist (and get a nice pay raise to go with it too =) ).

[Guest superstorecanadian]

You forgot a Pro

 

Of Course, you serve your country. In your latter years, you become a veteran!

 

Kudos to our Canadian Soldiers oversees!

 

Strong. Proud. Canadian Forces

[Guest snplow]

Hey Zuckman,

 

I have had the oppurtunity to speak to a CF doctor while I was Winnepeg.

 

He offered me a very opinion about serving the CF. I will try to summerize what he said.

 

To avoid any confusion, he really did not like being a doctor in the CF

 

- The very first thing he said to me was that he "f***ing hated it" (he did not censor anything).

 

- He advised me to avoid the CF, because even though the CF makes it very lucrative by offering to pay for med school and 4 years of work after, the difference could be easily made up by working in the civilian world without sacrificing 4 years of life.

 

- He said that it was not a very challenging career becaues all he ever really got to see was sprained ankles and sprained wrists from basic troops marching around too much.

 

- He did not like moving around alot, and said that it was difficult to settle down and start a family.

 

- Finally, he said that one should only do it if they only want to serve the CF and not because it looks like a good deal to get free tuition.

 

I hope these insights hope you with your choice. (Although they are quite negative and different that what other people have said)

[Guest Steve MD09]

"- He said that it was not a very challenging career becaues all he ever really got to see was sprained ankles and sprained wrists from basic troops marching around too much."

 

One of my small group instructors last term used to be a military doctor (in Malaysia, although it's probably not that different), and he said he lost his clinical skills doing that because he was almost entirely seeing healthy, young people. When he came to Canada, he became a pathologist because of this.

[Guest QM6]

Hi, just to echo the concerns from the above posts, because I wrestled a lot with them too - again only from what I know:

 

In past years, the majority of MOTP-trained physicians did leave the military as soon as their return of service was up (something like 60-70% I heard... more recently it's down to 20-33% I think?). Starting families, settling down and having some certainty as to when and where you'll be start to become important issues for a lot of people, who might not've had the same pressures earlier on.

 

Depending on where you end up, your clinic practice may be pretty limited. At a training base, it will be lots of healthy young recruits with training injuries; at one of the more "working" bases, there'll be more variety - young and older, pregnant, general medicine, psychiatry, minor procedures, etc, like a regular FM practice.

 

They promise that 20% or so of your working time will be in civilian sites (eg hospital Emergs) to keep your skills up. CME opportunities have been hit or miss I've heard, though I know the base doctor here attends the Emergency Medicine rounds at Queen's, for example. Specialists spend all their time in civilian clinics/hospitals. Like any other field in medicine, it can be what you make of it, what you ask for.

 

100% agree with snplow's last point: if it's just for the financial benefits alone, I don't think that's going to be enough motivation to get you through the career and personal commitment/sacrifices involved. Yes, not worrying about tuition is nice, but everyone does eventually pay it off; don't let those med school debt figures scare you into committing to anything you wouldn't otherwise do.

 

But if the idea of serving Canada, the CF and the world at large, the chance to travel across the country and overseas, take on some interesting leadership and managerial challenges, and practice a different kind of medicine appeals to you, this might be a good option. Remember, there are plenty of other ways to get a similar sort of "global" medical/leadership experience (MSF, missions, etc); but if you're up for the commitment, the military does offer some pretty compelling opportunities too.