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Message from the SG – The Power of Navy Medicine
Esteemed Navy Medicine Shipmates,
I have never been more proud of our organization and the amazing work you do in support of our Nation and the U.S. Navy. The power of Navy Medicine is one of the most important weapons in our country’s arsenal and we are making a difference by bringing it to bear against this invisible adversary all across the globe. In his update to all Navy Flag Officers and Senior Executive Service personnel the Vice Chief of Naval Operations wrote yesterday: “Our Surgeon General, and the entire Navy Medicine team have been working 24/7 since this pandemic began, and even with Navy providing over 70% of DoD’s deployed medical forces, they are leading DoD research efforts on COVID prevention, testing and immunization solutions.” You are doing an incredible job during these challenging times and your effort and impact in this fight are recognized daily throughout the Navy and Marine Corps.
We are a solution-focused organization which leverages high-velocity learning to be resourceful and innovative, especially in the face of our current national emergency. As our One Navy Medicine team continues to learn more about the coronavirus, the scientific and medical counsel we provide to our Sailors, Marines, and their families will evolve as well. We will also improve our processes for how we marshal and deploy our forces; maintain, transport and deliver vital supplies; improve communications up and down our chain-of-command; and how we can take better care of our people.
In the spirit of continuous improvement, I recently challenged our Clinical Communities to take a hard look at how we can provide additional support by employing all qualified providers directly in COVID-19 care, irrespective of their specific specialties. Not surprising, they responded. We are seeing great examples of our clinicians stepping out of their traditional roles to fulfill boots on the ground support and standing watch to help meet the growing demand for COVID-19 health care support. Below are a few concrete examples. In the coming weeks I will share and highlight more with you:
- Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton: Dental officers stand ready to care for any urgent dental needs AND have integrated with their medical colleagues to serve a vital role in the hospital’s COVID-19 response plan. They are now serving on the “front line” in the flu tents and providing essential screening and triage to patients.
- Naval Hospital Bremerton. Expanded partnerships with the state’s Northwest Healthcare Response Network and the Washington State Hospital Association to develop a crisis standard of care flow path, which improves closer coordination in triage and send patients to available beds.
The imperative to move out of our comfort zones is not new. This is what we do, and I am confident you feel the same way. During my career, particularly in operational settings, I leaned heavily on my experience as a GMO and undersea and diving medical officer to care for patients, long after I became an orthopedic surgeon. Although we have many subspecialized doctors, nurses, corpsmen and ancillary support personnel we are all care-givers at heart. I appreciate your ability to reconnect to those fundamental skills that initially attracted you to a medical career, especially your caring and compassion as we work to defeat this adversary. I am greatly encouraged by the use of virtual health, particularly in psychological health, to ensure continuity of care for patients. All of us are under tremendous stress, and the availability of support services is reassuring — particularly during this crisis.
I encourage you to visit https://navylive.dodlive.mil/2020/03/15/u-s-navy-covid-19-updates/ and familiarize yourself with the U. S. Navy COVID-19 Mitigation Framework and the U. S. Navy COVID-19 Prevention Framework. Both documents provide our operational leaders with actionable information, help protect the Force, and preserve warfighting readiness. Importantly, they reflect the critical support that our Navy Medicine public health, research and development, and emergency preparedness experts, along with many others, have and continue to provide. Now more than ever, our leaders are relying on us for sound force health protection advice and recommendations.
In closing, I want you to know that while we are operating far from our comfort zone, our strength as a team of dedicated expeditionary medical professionals will see us through this crisis and we will emerge even stronger and more mission ready. My heartfelt best wishes to you, your loved ones and the American people fortunate to have you in their corner.
With my continued respect and admiration,
SG Sends
Bruce L. Gillingham, MD, CPE, AOA
RADM, MC, USN
Surgeon General, U.S. Navy
Chief, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery
Finance Friday Articles
Here are my favorites this week:
3 Important Financial Lessons I’ve Learned From The Coronavirus Pandemic
Monitoring your risk level & rebalancing
The Stock Market is Not Your Benchmark
Here are the rest of the articles:
5 Ways to Find Work-Life Balance While at Home
Calculating the Value of Your Backdoor Roth Contributions
How to Get Wealthy Investing in a Bear Market
How to Manage Student Loans During the COVID-19 Crisis
Is It Better to Withdraw Only from Cash and Bonds in a Bear Market?
Making Money In Times Of Crisis – Lessons From Past Bear Markets
Managing the Transition to Attendinghood Properly
My New Theory About Future Stock Market Returns
Pandemics vs. Post-War Recoveries
Personal Finance During a Crisis
120 Day Special Leave Accrual for Service Members
Today, Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Matthew Donovan signed a department-wide authorization for service members to accrue and retain an additional leave balance of up to 120 days. The department’s actions to stem the spread of COVID-19 has significantly limited the ability of service members to take leave during this national emergency, and we know that leave is vital to the health and welfare of our force.
The memo can be found here.
New York Times – Military Sees No Quick Exit From ‘New World’ of Coronavirus
Here’s a link to this article:
As COVID-19 Crisis Continues, Servicemembers Civil Relief Act Protects Military
Here’s a link to the article, which should be read by anyone dealing with issues related to rent, security deposits, evictions, credit cards, mortgage/foreclosure, automobile leases, etc….
As COVID-19 Crisis Continues, Servicemembers Civil Relief Act Protects Military
The New Medical Corps Career Progression Slide – What Does It Mean to You?
Navy Medicine has been undergoing a lot of change. We have a new Surgeon General, a new Corps Chief, and a renewed focus on readiness. With these changes come a new career progression and path for the Medical Corps (MC) Officer (PDF version, PPT version). Let’s take a look at the new model and discuss some of the ways it will impact you as your career progresses. We’ll start at the top of the slide and work our way down, translating it into action items for every MC Officer.
Intent and Expectations
What should a MC Officer note in this section? To be competitive for promotion, you need to have been operational AND clinical. The days of camping at Military Treatment Facilities (MTFs) are over. Everyone needs to be operationally relevant, and this is consistent with the most recent changes in the O6 promotion board convening order. It can be with the Surface Force, Fleet Marine Force (FMF), Undersea, Air, Special Operations, Joint environment, Expeditionary Combat Command, or any other operational setting you find yourself in. It doesn’t matter how or in what setting, but everyone needs to be operationally relevant.
Action #1 – Deliberately develop your operational relevance.
Recommended Medical and Professional Development Path
Very simply, this spells out your educational pathway. Completing residency and becoming board certified is not a new concept or path for the MC Officer. What is new, though, is the expectation that everyone will serve in an operational setting by the time they are up for promotion to O5 and in a more senior operational role before they are up for O6. The concept of everyone becoming an Operational Medical Officer (OMO) is explained in detail at the bottom of the slide.
In addition to serving as an OMO, the expectation is that those who want to serve in more senior roles will complete Joint Professional Military Education Levels I and II (JPME I/II) and obtain formal management or leadership training, such as a Master’s in Business Administration or similar degree.
Action #2 – Start JPME I now if you haven’t already, and develop a strategy and timeline with your mentors to obtain more senior education.
High Reliability Organization Training
The new SG is a huge proponent of high reliability, and Navy Medicine is constantly striving to adopt the principles of a High Reliability Organization (HRO). Many of the classes mentioned on the career path slide are undergoing modifications and updates to incorporate high reliability education.
Action #3 – Attend or complete the listed HRO courses.
Example Assignments
The example assignments are divided into Fleet and Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command/Unit (NMRTC/U) positions. They are also stratified according to the typical ranks at which they would occur. These are general guidelines and variability will certainly occur, so be flexible. For example, we know that it takes a minimum of seven years to become a Neurosurgeon, so their path will vary. Other specialties that require longer training are in a similar situation. As a result of this, we are going to ask each Specialty Leader to take this generic career path and modify it for their own specialty.
Another takeaway from this portion of the slide is to alternate between operational assignments and NMRTC/U assignments where you are serving primarily in a clinical role, likely at an MTF. Time at the MTF will allow you to solidify your individual clinical skills and contribute to our Graduate Medical Education mission. After that tour, return to the operational setting in a more senior role. Rinse and repeat this pattern as your career progresses.
Action #4 – Print the career path slide and get a red and black pen. In black circle the jobs, roles, and courses you’ve already done. In red circle ones you’d like to do. When it is time for your next set of orders, jump from realm where you currently are (Fleet or NMRTC/U) to the other and aim for one of the positions to the right that you circled in red.
An Example – My Career Path
Just to visualize the way we are encouraging you to use the career path slide, let’s take a look at My Career Path. I circled the things I’ve done in black, and the things I’d like to do in red.
As a 19 year O6, I have a lot of black ink, but there are some red circles to the right indicating the things I’d like to do. As the Deputy Corps Chief, I am currently in a senior headquarters role toward the right end of the Fleet portion. Most likely, my next career move will be to obtain JPME II or enter Executive Medicine as an Executive Officer (XO) because completing an XO and Commanding Officer (CO) tour is mandatory before I can compete for the more senior leadership roles. Use a similar analysis of where you’ve been (black ink) and where you want to go (red ink) to come up with options for your next career move.
Summary
The new MC career path should serve as the basic framework around which you structure your career. A quick summary of the actions you should take include:
- Deliberately develop your operational relevance.
- Start JPME I now if you haven’t already, and develop a strategy and timeline with your mentors to obtain more senior education.
- Attend or complete the listed HRO courses.
- Circle the jobs, roles, and courses you’ve already done in black. Circle ones you’d like to do in red. When it is time for your next set of orders, jump from the realm where you currently are (Fleet or NMRTC/U) to the other and aim for one of the positions to the right that you circled in red.
Military Times – The Military’s Travel Ban is Getting an Extension, SECDEF Confirms
Here’s a link to the article, which doesn’t confirm the length of the extension, simply that an announcement is coming later this week:
The Military’s Travel Ban is Getting an Extension, SECDEF Confirms
Bioethical and Legal Considerations Webinar Changed to 23 APR
The Bioethical and Legal Considerations During the COVID-19 Pandemic for Health Care Providers Special Feature Webinar is rescheduled to 23 April 2020. The Special Feature Webinar will take place from 1400-1600 (ET) and is completely virtual allowing participants to earn up to 2.0 Continuing Education/Continuing Medical Education (CE/CME) credits from anywhere in the world! Please note that the Special Feature Webinar is open to Department of Defense (DoD) and Federal Partners only!
To register for the event, please visit the following link: https://www.dhaj7-cepo.com/content/bioethical-and-legal-considerations-during-covid-19-pandemic-health-care-providers-live-0
*Access Code:*485021
The live webinar will discuss bioethical principles, ethical frameworks, legal considerations, and highlight case studies/problem-based discussions for Military Health System (MHS) health care providers during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.
Joel Schofer's Career Planning Blog 