Author: Joel Schofer, MD, MBA, CPE
Throwback Thursday Classic Post – MCCareer.org – “The Book”
The Navy does an okay job helping physicians plan their careers, but in my opinion this preparation can be a lot better. This is why I created Joel Schofer’s Promo Prep and subsequently MCCareer.org. By the time you progress in your Naval career and learn everything you need to know, it is often too late. Therefore it is the responsibility of those who are senior and have already learned this information to teach it to the next generation of Naval physicians before it is too late.
The modern adult learner has more educational methods at his/her disposal than ever before. Whether you like social media, such as Twitter or Facebook, prefer to listen to podcasts in your car while you are driving, or like traditional methods of learning, such as reading articles, you can find one of these sources to learn about almost any topic you can imagine. Yet even though traditional books seem to have fallen out of favor during the rise of social media, there is still something reassuring about reading a book. Putting information in a book validates it and provides some degree of credibility. So, despite the fact that blogs have partially replaced books and the MCCareer.org blog has taken off, I think a book that discusses Navy Medical Corps career planning will still be well received and a valuable resource, which is why I’m creating one. I hope you enjoy it, benefit from it, and, frankly, help me create it. Here’s how I see this going down…
Take a look at the chapter list on this page. If there is something on it that you feel particularly qualified to write, let me know. Just in case I get a lot of interest, make sure to tell me what makes you qualified. Together we’ll use anything that is already on this site and we’ll turn it into a chapter, posting it on the site so others can read and use it.
If you think there is something we’re missing, let me know.
No one will make any money on this. It’ll just be a useful resource for anyone who wants to use it, and we’ll have it available on the blog. Maybe once it is all done we’ll create a real book in print or e-book, but for now I’m planning just putting it on the blog for free.
Navy MWR Digital Library Always Open
WASHINGTON (NNS) — Base libraries may be closed, but the Navy Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) Digital Library remains open as the nation and Navy address the ongoing pandemic.
Managed by Commander, Navy Installations Command (CNIC), the MWR Digital Library offers access to thousands of books and resources for authorized patrons to use for recreational purposes, professional development and academic support.
“The digital library has something for everyone,” said Erika Hoagland, MWR systems librarian for CNIC. “Whether it is picking up a new skill or reinforcing an old one. Finding a new movie to watch. Listening to music and learning the lyrics. Taking up a new language. Thinking about the next step in your career development or losing yourself in a book for a few hours. Our digital library has you covered.”
The digital library, which can be accessed at www.navymwrdigitallibrary.org, is open to Sailors, Reservists, retirees, Navy civilian personnel and their families as well as eligible contractors with MWR privileges. Personnel assigned to the Marine Corps and Coast Guard are able to join.
The MWR Digital Library provides users with more than 30 free online services that cater to all age groups and preferences.
For leisure purposes, try Freegal Music and Kanopy streaming video. Both can be used through apps after registering. Freegal Music has every genre of music. Listeners can download three songs a week and have unlimited, ad-free streaming access. Besides movies and documentaries for adults, Kanopy has a large selection of children’s video, including story time books.
Whether for fun or professional development, OverDrive has nearly 90,000 audiobooks and ebooks, including the CNO Professional Reading Program titles and the latest bestsellers for children, teens and adults. RBdigital has thousands of audiobook titles with no waitlists as well as magazines and Great Courses videos.
For those who require academic support, the MWR Digital Library provides access to Gale, which is an online research and education publishing service. Through September, Gale users have expanded access to thousands of new full-text academic journals. The digital library also offers research investment and personal finance options with Morningstar Investment Research Center and Weiss Ratings.
For those who are preparing for various examinations and standardized tests, such as the ASVAB, ACT and GRE, the digital library provides access to EBSCO Learning Express, which prepares users to take over 100 exams.
Finally, to support military children, including those who have been impacted by COVID-19, the digital library provides access to Scholastic Pre-K through 12th grade collections, featuring nonfiction ebooks, lesson plans, printable handouts and more for learning at home.
Reading Challenge
The MWR Library program has a Spring Reading Challenge online at dodvirtualsrp.beanstack.org/reader365 now through May 16. Readers who log at least an hour of reading time during the week are automatically entered into weekly e-gift card drawings. The reading challenge is open to MWR-services eligible readers of all ages. Participants can read from any book, newspaper or magazine, listen to audiobooks, or read to a child. Readers are encouraged to checkout ebooks and audiobooks from the MWR Digital Library collections.
Check Out Tutor.com
Through funding from the Department of Defense (DOD) and as a service of the DOD MWR Library System, Tutor.com provides one-to-one academic tutoring and on-demand homework assistance at no cost to students in the Navy, Army, Air Force and Marine Corps. To help alleviate the academic stress due to COVID-19, access eligibility has been temporarily expanded to family members of service members, wounded warriors and DOD civilians. Active duty personnel, civilians and families can receive academic support around-the-clock in more than 100 subjects for grades kindergarten through college.
Sign Up Today
Sponsors and spouses can sign up at home for access to the Digital Library portal with DS Logon, a service of the Defense Manpower Data Center that verifies the user is eligible for Navy MWR services. Personnel can use their Common Access Cards to sign into the digital library.
For more information on the Navy MWR Digital Library, go to www.navymwrdigitallibrary.org or visit the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/USNavyGeneralLibraryProgram.
Reassess Your Emergency Fund Due to COVID-19
Experts often recommend keeping three-to-six months of living expenses as an emergency fund. About to get out of the military? You should probably hold more cash than you do now. While I doubt anyone in the military lost their job or paycheck as a result of COVID-19, there were many civilians who did, including some people who thought they were in recession proof professions, like medical providers. In the end, everyone should reassess their emergency fund due to COVID-19.
There are a few things to take into account when it comes to your emergency fund. First, it is for real emergencies. It is not for when your Playstation 4 breaks, but for when you have a significant and unexpected expense. Things that would qualify would include an insurance claim that requires you pay a substantial deductible (like an earthquake or flood), medical expenses, legal expenses, or loss of a job that reduces your income.
Second, you may have a larger emergency fund than you realize. You can withdraw any contributions (not earnings) you’ve made to a Roth IRA without tax or penalty. You can sell any taxable investments you’ve made. You’d have to pay taxes on any capital gains you have, but if it really is an emergency this might be a reasonable way to deal with it.
You can also use credit. If you have home equity, you may have already set up a home equity line of credit you could tap. Finally, you have credit cards you could use to fund any emergencies on a short-term basis. I wouldn’t recommend that you pay credit card interest because it could be a very high interest rate, but if it is truly an emergency this is always an option.
Third, if you are in the military you have a few significant advantages others don’t have. While you could always get yourself in trouble and get kicked out, you probably won’t lose your job. Being a TRICARE beneficiary limits the amount of out-of-pocket medical expenses you’d be exposed to. Both of these may limit the amount of emergency money you need to keep in reserve. For me, what I call my “emergency fund” is really just extra money I keep accessible for home improvements and repairs, automobile purchases, and vacations.
If you’d like to read my take on the emergency fund, go to 1st Step to Financial Freedom – Establishing an Emergency Fund.
Military Times 2020 Guide to Military Benefits
Here’s a link to this on-line guide that covers Basic Pay, BAH, retirement, family support, VA loans, TRICARE, and educational benefits. It is a great resource if you have questions about how something works:
Updated Summary of COVID Related ALNAVs and NAVADMINs
There’s been a number of COVID-19-related ALNAV and NAVADMIN messages released since the last summary. This document summarizes all of these messages (the newest ones are highlighted) and hyperlinks are provided for the messages:
COVID19 Message Summary (24Apr20)
Thanks to CAPT Kemper at BUMED who sends me these summaries.
Two COVID Info Sheets for Those With Travel or PCS Issues
Here are two PDFs that might help people in certain situations.
This PDF is for anyone “ordered by their command to self-monitor somewhere other than their home if they are not on official travel orders”:
HARDSHIP-DUTY-PAY-RESTRICTION-OF-MOVEMENT
This one is for anyone who has “entered into a rental or purchase agreement at their prospective duty station, but are unable to execute PCS orders due to travel restrictions”:
IMPACT-OF-TRAVEL-RESTRICTIONS-ON-BASIC-ALLOWANCE-FOR-HOUSING-ENTITLEMENTS
Message from the SG – When Can Navy Medicine Get There?
Esteemed Navy Medicine Shipmates,
As you know, our One Navy Medicine Team is on the front lines of this fight combating COVID-19 on multiple platforms and working across many disciplines. Last week I shared with you several examples of how our clinicians are stepping out of their traditional roles to provide “boots on the ground” health care support in this national emergency. Our clinicians remain a vital part of this effort, and they are not alone in the fight.
This past Monday, Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center professionals partnered with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct an outbreak investigation in Guam with volunteers from the USS Theodore Roosevelt. The purpose of this investigation is to gather data which will help inform future testing strategies, operational planning, and COVID-19 mitigation measures to ensure the readiness of Navy ships and our Force.
Since the coronavirus outbreak was first recognized, our scientists from Navy Medicine’s Research & Development enterprise immediately began to harness the power of our global network of laboratories to help develop vaccines and therapeutics against SARSCoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Our research experts are looking at operational needs and working to develop countermeasure products that will make their way down to the deckplate. Our Navy Medicine Researchers are focusing on four priorities:
- Producing purified human anti-SARSCoV-2 polyclonal antibodies. Naval Medical Research Center has partnered with Sanford Applied Biosciences to produce human neutralizing antibodies from humanized cows (Tc Bovines) that can potentially be used to treat COVID-19 infected patients. When administered to at-risk individuals exposed to COVID-19 infected patients, these Tc Bovine-derived human antibodies may prevent infection or significantly reduce illness associated with a secondary COVID-19 infection.
- Psoralen-inactivated SARSCoV-2 vaccine. Developing an inactivated whole virus COVID-19 vaccine using a flexible vaccine development platform that is based on the use of a psoralen compound, which interrupts virus replication by inactivating viral genes, while leaving the outer virus proteins largely intact. These intact outer virus proteins in psoralen-inactivated vaccines promote a better immune response compared to standard formalin-inactivated vaccines where the outer virus proteins may be distorted or destroyed by the formalin inactivation method leading to a less robust immune response.
- Phage-based COVID-19 vaccine. Designing a multi-subunit phage-based vaccine that will be ready for testing within weeks. They have secured funding for purification, manufacturing, and large-scale throughput to prepare numerous Current Good Manufacturing Practice vaccines, identifying optimal polyvalent vaccines prepared for phase I clinical trials.
- Spearheading a robust and field-deployable rapid diagnostic test suited to meet shipboard demands. Navy researchers are working with Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on gene editors that could operate as rapid detectors of pathogenic threats. The development initiative is called “Detect it with Gene Editing Technologies” to enable biosurveillance detection of any threat, anytime, anywhere.
We are eager to see these projects contribute to our fight against COVID-19 and Navy Medicine continues to make meaningful progress by leveraging high-velocity learning to be resourceful and innovative. I would like to note, that the contributions from our doctors and scientists are not always conducted bedside or from a lab bench. In Lima, Peru, team members from Naval Medical Research Unit Six were recently recognized by the State department for stepping up to support the repatriation efforts of over 7,000 U.S. citizens stranded in Peru and transport them back to America. When there is a challenge before us and people are in need, the men and women of our One Navy Medicine Team are there to provide help and support.
Whatever your role, I want each of you to know that your contributions continue to make a difference. It is a well known fact that our Navy is the 911 force for our Nation and often the first words uttered by our leadership in the time of crisis is “When can the Carriers get there?” Because of the Power that you bring to this fight and the immediate game-changing impact you are having, the first thing I’m hearing is “When can Navy Medicine get there?” Thank you for your responsiveness, dedication, and professionalism to our Sailors, Marines, families, and our fellow citizens. You are the game changers in this fight!
With my continued respect and admiration,
SG Sends
April Message from the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs
MHS Team:
As the nation faces a historic challenge to combat the COVID-19 pandemic,
military medicine is at the forefront of the battle to protect the health of
U.S. military forces and support the national response. You are playing a
critical role to deliver on the Secretary’s priorities to protect our
Service members, their families, and the workforce, while maintaining
military readiness and supporting the national COVID-19 response. Military
medicine has been at the front lines of the national response – bringing
unique, and agile expertise and rapidly deployable resources to the fight,
including martialing medical staffing and getting them to the place where
they can do the most good: treating patients. We’re mobilizing doctors,
nurses, and medical technicians, both Active and Reserve Component.
Thank you for being a part of our team, and for the long hours you are
putting in to keep our people healthy and safe, and to support our nation in
the fight against COVID-19. I wish to share some key updates as we work
together across the MHS and the Department to tackle this virus.
The pandemic is putting unprecedented pressure on the MHS. As a result, on
April 2 the Department decided to pause the MTF transition activities for 90
days. At the 45-day mark, we’ll reassess to determine the right time to
resume these important efforts. This pause enables the system’s full focus
on the COVID-19 response.
As we direct our attention and resources to meet the increasing military
medical needs from COVID-19, the Military Health System’s agility and
adaptability remain part and parcel to our success. Health Affairs, the
Services, the Office of the Joint Staff Surgeon, the DHA, and the Uniformed
Services University continue to focus on a range of efforts to support the
Department and our beneficiaries. We’ve worked closely with senior
leadership to implement a series of Force Health Protection policies that
provide DoD Guidance on protecting personnel, patient movement and
treatment, the use of personal protective equipment, and laboratory
diagnostic testing.
I issued a policy that began on March 31 directing military Medical
Treatment Facilities and Dental Treatment Facilities to postpone elective,
non-invasive, non-urgent procedures unless those procedures can be safely
performed and are deemed necessary for readiness or for a patient’s safety.
This policy aligns with actions being taken across the nation to conserve
vital healthcare resources to use in support of the national COVID-19
response. The policy has increased medical staff availability to meet MTF
demand, while supporting deployed medical assets and protecting our
patients, medical personnel, and communities from further exposure and
transmission of COVID-19.
The University’s and DHA’s COVID-19 Practice Management Guidelines,
TRICARE’s new Applied Behavioral Analysis therapy guidance, and new MTF
virtual health guidance are great examples of how the MHS is delivering for
our Service members, retirees and their families by adapting in real time to
increasing demands.
At the same time, facilities are leveraging advanced telehealth technology
to preserve health care service offerings for patients. In fact, the number
of Direct Care visits has not changed compared to February, thanks in large
part to the virtual care our providers are now offering. On March 30, more
than 35 percent of primary care appointments were conducted virtually, and
we expect the virtual health guidance to facilitate even more virtual care
offerings in the future, in order to continue providing high-quality care to
patients, even as the COVID-19 response continues. I commend MTFs and DTFs
for working hard to execute these changes seamlessly for our patients, and
in support of the whole-of-government efforts to conserve medical capacity
and resources.
Lastly, I’m pleased to congratulate the hundreds of fourth-year Uniformed
Services University medical students and graduate-level nurses who made
history being the first to graduate early. These new doctors and the nurses
who have completed advanced degrees are joining DoD’s COVID-19 response.
Thank you for your selfless commitment to serve our warfighters, patients,
and nation through military medicine. On behalf of the Military Health
System, welcome to the team!
DOD Starts Tiered COVID-19 Testing Process to Ensure Safety
Here’s a link to this article:
Finance Friday Articles
Here are my favorites this week:
What’s The Worst Case Scenario for Diversified Portfolios?
Here are the rest of this week’s articles:
5 Examples of Bad Financial Advice from Dave Ramsey (for Doctors)
14 Reasons the White Coat Investor Doesn’t Want You to Retire Early
A $50,000 Real Estate Fund Investment, One Year Update
Acts of Congress: The Impact of Coronavirus on Your Finances
Aggressive Hours Reduction: Why Every Physician Should Chase ‘Virtual Retirement
Different Strategies For Putting Cash to Work During a Bear Market
Do We Need to Worry About Government Debt?
Financial Freedom Warriors Fired Up Over Economic Turmoil
How do we continue to diversify through this economic downturn?
How Early Retirement Prepared Us for the Pandemic
Investments in a Pandemic: The Lay of the Land
Stocks Just Took the Elevator Down & The Elevator Up
Tax Deductions for a Home Office
The Collapse of the Energy Sector
The Wild World of Yield Chasing
Which Retirement Accounts Should I Use? The Order of Investing
Joel Schofer's Career Planning Blog 