Associate Dean of Clinical Sciences Position at USUHS – CAPT/CAPT(s) Only
If you are interested in this position, contact your Specialty Leader or Detailer. The announcement is here. It would need to be filled in early to mid-2017:
Directly supervises 360 junior officers in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Public Health Service. Coordinates the School of Medicine’s curriculum and educational programs in the third and fourth years, monitors academic performance in the third- and fourth-year students, and assists fourth-year students in their preparation for Graduate Medical Education applications and selection. Responsible for the School of Medicine’s academic standard in the clinical sciences, as well as personal and professional growth and development of individual students throughout their third and fourth years. Serves on standing committees that directly affect students, to include the Curriculum Committee, Student Promotions Committee, and Board on Review for Interservice Transfers.
The $121,500+ Guest Room
I have a wife, two children, two dogs and the need for three bedrooms and two bathrooms. In March 2015 I purchased what I consider to be a modest 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath, 3000 square foot house in a nice neighborhood with quality public schools. The 4th bedroom is largely unnecessary, but like many people we occasionally have visitors and feel that it is nice to offer them a bedroom as opposed to a hotel. This is the story of how that 4th bedroom cost me over $100,000, far more than it would cost to provide our visitors with a hotel room…a REALLY NICE hotel room.
The Guest Room
The guest room and its accompanying full bathroom are approximately 600 square feet. The house sold for $140/square foot, meaning that this extra room and bathroom cost me $84,000. Where I live, you can get a decent hotel room for $100/night. In other words, I could have purchased 840 nights in a hotel room for any guests we have and I don’t think we’ll ever have 840 guest-nights unless we stay in this house for a very, very, long time. In addition, we have a quite comfortable queen size Lazy Boy sleeper couch that could have substituted for the guest room.
Running total: $84,000
The HVAC Incident
“The way they installed this, I don’t even think I can fix it.” That is not what I wanted my HVAC repair man to say, but that is what he said. The guest room did not have its own HVAC zone and because it is above the garage and the insulation is not what it could be, the guest room is always too hot or too cold. And what’s the point of a nice guestroom if it’s not comfortable? After spending $5,000, the guest room had its own wall mounted HVAC unit and zone.
Running total: $89,000
The Exchange Student
Since we have an $89,000 extra room with a bathroom and its own HVAC, we are hosting a Spanish exchange student during the upcoming school year. Hosting an exchange student will likely be a great experience for us all, as I assume it will expand our horizons and hopefully forge a lasting relationship with someone for us to visit in Spain.
I suspect this student, like most humans, will eat and drink and cost some money, so I’m adding that to the running total.
Running total: $89,000 plus whatever a 16-year-old boy eats and drinks during a school year.
Despite the fact that he is of driving age, he is not allowed to drive in the US. This, of course, led to…
The Manny Van
Sometime in August, I will have a wife, two kids, two dogs, and an exchange student. It is (was) going to be tough to get around and do the traveling we’d like to do in our Toyota Prius and Ford Fusion Hybrid. Having a 12, 15, and 16-year-old in the back seat, while technically feasible, was not going to be fun for anything other than the shortest of trips. Plus, we like to bring the dogs.
Enter the $32,500 2015 Toyota Sienna minivan, which I like to call the “manny van” when I’m driving it. I can now haul all living beings for whom I am responsible in the manliest of vans.
Running total: $121,500 plus whatever a 16-year-old boy eats and drinks in a school year
The Moral of the Story
One of the classic financial mistakes that almost all physicians make (including me apparently) is that they spend too much money, buying too expensive a car and too large of a house. Sometimes something as simple as wanting a guest room can lead to unintended and expensive consequences. If we didn’t have a guest room, I would probably have an extra $100,000 and I wouldn’t be driving a “manny van”.
Enlisted to Medical Degree Prep Program
If you work with any enlisted members (they don’t have to be medical) who you think would make an excellent physician, make sure they know about this program. The deadline for applicants is 1 NOV 2016:
2016-2017 Edition of Joel Schofer’s Promo Prep
I’ve significantly updated the old version of the promo prep document that has been downloaded over 2,000 times. It now includes:
- Screen shots so you can be sure to find what you’re looking for
- Actual images from my own officer record so you know you’re looking in the right place
- Updated promotion board statistics
- Appendix VIII – detailed instructions on how to obtain the Executive Medicine AQD (thanks to whoever created this at BUMED or PERS as I’m not sure exactly where it came from)
- Up-to-date lists of all the medical AQDs and service schools
It is new, improved, and as always the newest version can be found here:
March 2017 Naval Postgraduate School Executive MBA Distance Learning Program
Here are a PDF and link to the NAVADMIN:
March 2017 NPS E-MBA Program NAVADMIN
This is how I got my MBA, so I can answer detailed questions about the program. If you’re interested, use the contact me tab to get in touch with me.
Updated Career Intermission Program NAVADMIN
Here are a PDF and link to the updated NAVADMIN that governs the Career Intermission Program (CIP):
The CIP allows you to take 1-3 years off from your Naval career, maintain a small basic pay and TRICARE benefits, and then return. If you are interested, you can also check out OPNAV 1330.2B – Navy Career Intermission Program Guidelines.
Application to Join Surgeon General’s Digital Vanguard Team – O4 and Below Only
Here is a message from the Navy Surgeon General announcing this new techology initiative. The application can be found here – Digital Vanguard Application Package.
From: Faison, C Forrest (Forrest) VADM USN BUMED FCH VA (US)
Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2016 3:28 PM
Subject: DIGITAL VANGUARD
As you all well know, the technology landscape is rapidly advancing and fundamentally changing expectations and behaviors in all industries to include healthcare. As the military population rapidly adopts new innovations into their lives, there will be an expectation that their healthcare providers leverage these technologies in the delivery of care and as a means to improve health. Navy Medicine must look to enhance innovation and accelerate our velocity of learning if we are going to maximize health and readiness of a young and tech savvy population.
We need a sustained infusion of new ideas, experiences, and approaches from outside of the Military Health System and healthcare to meet our mission and build tomorrow’s leaders. To address this need, Navy Medicine is
establishing a “Digital Vanguard” of 75-100 junior enlisted and officer staff who will participate in various events to increase their situational awareness of emerging technology and how other industries are leveraging it and share their discoveries with the rest of our Enterprise. The expectation is that this cohort will serve as a distributed network of forward thinkers advising Navy Medicine leadership on how to capitalize on opportunities that new technologies can bring to improve health and readiness. I want to be sure you are aware and ask for your support as the group will be distributed throughout the enterprise and their participation will require a long term commitment across multiple commands. Expected participation is 10 hours a quarter as well as some TAD for training and education.
The BUMED Digital Health Office will liaison with you/your staffs and the Corps Chiefs to identify members for the group from across the various Corps. All applicants must have a command and Corps Chief endorsement. Costs for travel, lodging and fees associated with events will be funded centrally by the BUMED Digital Health Office. Travel logistic coordination will also be managed by the Digital Health Office to minimize any additional burden on our Commands. Applications are expected to be released in late September with final membership decisions completed by the end of November 2016.
My thanks in advance for your support in this endeavor.
Very respectfully,
C. Forrest Faison III, M.D.
VADM MC USN
Surgeon General, U.S. Navy
Chief, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery
How to Find Out Your Reporting Senior’s Fitrep Trait Average
One of the most important markers of a good fitrep is that your trait average is above your reporting senior’s trait average. Since most officers initially write their own fitrep and create their own trait average on the first draft, it is important to find out your reporting senior’s trait average so that you can try to be above it. Here are a few ways to find out what it is.
First, in order to have a trait average, your reporting senior has to have served as the reporting senior for officers of your same rank from any corps. If they have not done this, they’ll have no pre-existing average. For example, if you are a LCDR, your reporting senior does not have to have ranked LCDR physicians. If he/she has ever ranked a LCDR of any kind (nurse, Medical Service Corps, line officer, etc.), then they will have an average.
If they have an average, here are the ways I know of to find it:
- If you’ve already received a fitrep from them in your current grade, then you can look at your Performance Summary Report or PSR, which you download from BUPERS On-Line. The number in the lower right in the “AVERAGES” column (circled below) is their average for that rank.
- If you haven’t received a fitrep from them, maybe you have a friend in the same rank who has received a recent fitrep from them. You can look at their PSR if they’ll let you.
- You can ask your chain of command or command fitrep coordinator. They often know because they are trying to make sure that all of the fitreps being done don’t change the reporting senior’s average in ways he/she doesn’t want.
- You can ask the reporting senior. They just may tell you.
The bottom line is that if you are drafting your fitrep, you want to try and find out the average and grade yourself above it. In the end, the ranking process may move you below it, but by submitting the draft with an above average grade you may increase the chances you stay above it.
Multiple Alternative Billets Available
There are multiple alternative billets available (or at least that is what I call them). Here is a list. The POC if you are interested in any of them would be your Detailer:
- BUMED Chief Medical Officer – O6 Only – NOV/DEC 2016 (position description here)
- Navy Recruiting Command – Millington, TN – Spring 2017 – You aid in medical waiver determinations for new accessions.
- Physical Evaluation Board – Washington, DC – Summer 2017
- Naval War College – O5/O6 with Joint Professional Military Education I only – Timing varied.
- Inter-American War College – Washington, DC – Summer 2017 – Must speak Spanish or Portuguese.
- Indonesian Naval Command and Staff College – O4 Only – Indonesia – Summer 2017
- BUMED Readiness and Health Action Officer – Falls Church, VA – Summer 2017
- Director, Defense Hearing Center of Excellence – O6 with Hearing Conservation Background – San Antonio, TX – Winter 2016
LCDR Fitreps – Language for Writing Your Block 41
LCDRs all over Navy Medicine are busily writing their fitreps, so I wanted to offer some assistance. Keep in mind that when you write your block 41, the narrative portion of your fitrep, you are writing it for the promotion board. Many LCDRs struggle to find the right words to express all the things they’ve done, but it shouldn’t be that hard. If you read the fiscal year 2017 promotion board precept and convening order, you’ll find the things promotion boards are looking for explained in the language they want to hear. To facilitate your quest for the perfect block 41, here is some assistance:
- Here is the board precept: FY-17 AC RC PRECEPT
- Here is the board convening order: FY-17 AO5S CONVENING ORDER
- Here is a link to the video podcast that will help you write your entire fitrep: Basic Anatomy of a FITREP
- Here is a cheat sheet to use when drafting your block 41 on Word: Block 41 Word Template
- Here are all the relevant quotes pulled from these documents. Take your accomplishments, read these quotes, and use this language to put your accomplishments into verbiage that will be easy to brief at your own O5 promotion board. For example, maybe the opening line of your fitrep will borrow the first quote from the convening order below and read, “LCDR Smith is already performing his duties at the level of a seasoned Commander!”
From the precept:
“a broad spectrum of experience, background, perspective, innovative talent, and a depth and breadth of vision, drawn from every facet of the society it serves and understanding of the world within which it operates. The Navy needs innovative and bold male and female leaders to lead, think creatively, challenge assumptions, and take well-calculated risks that maximize effectiveness.”
“rich diversity of experience, backgrounds, perspective, innovative talent, and depth and breadth of vision”
“demonstrated potential to lead large organizations in a complex world composed of men and women coming from widely varying backgrounds.”
From the convening order:
“capable of performing the duties of the next higher pay grade”
“leadership, professional skills, integrity, management acumen, grounding business practices, and resourcefulness in difficult and challenging assignments.”
“adaptability, intelligent risk-taking, critical thinking, innovation, adherence to Navy and DoD ethical standards, physical fitness, and loyalty to the Navy core values.”
“capable of leading personnel from widely varying backgrounds and mentoring a diverse workforce while executing the Navy’s strategic diversity initiatives.”
“Proven and sustained superior performance in command or other leadership positions in difficult or challenging assignments”
“successful performance and leadership in combat conditions”
“officers with relevant graduate education, experience in specialized areas, and Navy and Joint Professional Military Education (JPME).”
“completion of graduate education and development of a subspecialty. Degrees from the Naval Postgraduate School, the Naval War College and equivalent Service institutions, and civilian education programs that result in assignment of a subspecialty code or award of Additional Qualification Designation (AQD) codes are desirable. Proven expertise from an experience tour utilizing that subspecialty is fundamental to the development of Navy Leaders.”
“opportunities to broaden their cultural awareness through experiences and education and to enable better communication in a global operating environment.”
“innovation and efficiency to ensure that we retain an adaptive, flexible, and effective spectrum of conflict.”
“ability to successfully change and to manage for efficiency.”
“think creatively, develop new ideas, take prudent risks, and maximize capabilities through sound management practices.”
“demonstrating innovative thinking, efficient management skills, prudent risk taking, and effective business practices”
“ability to operate effectively with the other Services”
“leaders with knowledge and experience in a variety of settings including operational medicine, joint medical operations, and current peacetime health care delivery initiatives.”
“exceptionally high professional operational, clinical, and business competence and intellectual capacity who have the ability to think analytically and express themselves articulately.”
“energy to create and communicate the organization’s vision”
“build and motivate teams to accomplish that vision”
“calculated risk-takers, inclusive in decision-making, and trusted by subordinates.”
“courage to stand on principles and demonstrate a clear potential to lead the Navy of the future.”
“recognize talent, mentor, coach, and develop juniors, and build the environment in which they can thrive”
“understand and use the best clinical practices and business tools in managing our military population’s health.”
“clearly understand Navy Medicine’s obligation to support the fleet and Marine Corps and demonstrate the capacity to meet the challenges of our commitment to maritime superiority.”
“broad knowledge necessary to support the operating forces and are acknowledged leaders within their operational, clinical, scientific, and business specialties”
“demonstrated exceptional managerial skill and professional competence in executive and staff roles both in the support of the fleet and Marine Corps and within the naval shore establishment.”
“served in a broad spectrum of assignments requiring expertise in diverse functional areas.”
“broad military and medical perspectives beyond the Department of the Navy.”
“demonstrated superior performance in the clinical, scientific, and/or operational settings.”
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