education
Throwback Thursday Classic Post – Tips to Get Selected for GME
I’ve participated in the last four Graduate Medical Education Selection Boards (GMESBs) and would like to offer tips for people looking to match for GME in the future. We’ll cover general tips and those specific for internship and residency/fellowship:
General Tips
- Money is getting tight for permanent change of station (PCS) moves at BUPERS. I think you can increase your chances of matching in GME by being local, or at least on the same coast, as the GME program where you want to train. Keep this in mind when you are picking your Flight Surgery (FS), Undersea Medical Officer (UMO), General Medical Officer (GMO), or post-residency assignments.
- If you want to give yourself the best chance of matching, you need multiple peer-reviewed publications. Any publications or scholarly activity have the chance to help, but having multiple peer-reviewed publications is the goal you should be trying to reach. Anything that is peer-reviewed counts, including case studies in Military Medicine which are, in general, pretty easy to get accepted for publication.
- Be realistic about your chances of matching. If you are applying to a competitive specialty and you’ve failed a board exam or had to repeat a year in medical school, you are probably not going to match in that specialty. There are some specialties where you can overcome a major blight on your record, but there are some where you can’t. If this is applicable to you, the residency director or specialty leader should be able to give you some idea of your chances. Will they be honest and direct with you? I’m not sure, but it can’t hurt to ask.
- If you are having trouble matching in the Navy for GME, you may have a better chance as a civilian. By the time you pay back your commitment to the Navy, you are a wiser, more mature applicant that some civilian residency programs might prefer over an inexperienced medical student. You’ll also find some fairly patriotic residency programs, usually with faculty who are prior military, that may take you despite your academic struggles.
Tips for Medical Students Applying for Internship
- Do everything you can to do a rotation with the GME program you want to match at. You want them to know who you are.
- When you are applying for internship, make sure your 2nd choice is not a popular internship (Emergency Medicine, Orthopedics, etc.). If you don’t match in your 1st choice and your 2nd choice is a popular internship, then it will likely have filled during the initial match. This means you get put in the “intern scramble” and you’ll likely wind up in an internship you didn’t even list on your application.
- Your backup plan if you don’t match should be an alternative program at the same site where you eventually want to match for residency. For example, in my specialty (Emergency Medicine or EM) we only have residencies at NMCP and NMCSD. If someone doesn’t match for an EM internship at NMCP or NMCSD, they will have a better chance of eventually matching for EM residency if they do an internship locally, like a transitional internship. Internships at Walter Reed or any other hospital without an EM program are quality programs, but it is much easier to pledge the fraternity if you are physically present and can get to know people, attending conferences and journal clubs when you can.
- You need to think about what you will do in your worst-case scenario, a 1-year civilian deferment for internship. Many of the medical students I interview do not have a plan if they get a 1-year deferment. I think every medical student needs to do one of two things. Either they should pick 10-15 civilian transitional year internships (or whatever internship they want) and apply to those just in case they get a 1-year deferment, or they should just plan to apply to internships late or scramble if this unlikely event happens to you. Most medical students do not grasp the concept that this could happen to them and have no plan to deal with it if it does. It is an unlikely event, especially if you are a strong applicant, and you can always just scramble at the last minute, but this is an issue that every medical student should think through. If you are going to just scramble at the last minute, that is fine, but it should be an informed choice.
Tips for Officers Applying for Residency or Fellowship
- You should show up whenever you can for conferences and journal clubs. Again, you want them to know who you are and by attending these events when you can you demonstrate your commitment to the specialty and their program.
- Always get a warfare device (if one is available) during your FS, UMO, or GMO tour. Not having it is a red flag.
Two Free Military Books – Fundamentals of Military Medicine & Emergency War Surgery
Here are the links where you can get them:
Fully Funded Occupational and Environmental Medicine Fundamentals Course – Portsmouth, VA – 9-13 SEPT 2019
The Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center OEM Division is excited to announce the next offering of the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Fundamentals course September 9-13 2019 in Portsmouth, VA!
The course is intended for physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners that do not have formal Occupational Medicine training (i.e. Occupational Medicine residency or experience) who will be practicing in an Occupational Medicine clinic or have significant Occupational Medicine-related workload. The course will cover history of Occupational Medicine, workplace hazards, risk communication, Navy Occupational Health programs, worksite visits, available resources, and will include clinical case break-out sessions.
Non-local students will be FULLY FUNDED BY NMCPHC for travel. There is no fee for the course itself.
We are applying for CME/CNE and anticipate the course will be approved for 31 credit hours as it has been in the past.
NMCPHC will coordinate with the Regional Program Managers & OEM Specialty Leader to ensure course seats are given to those according to clinic needs, responsibilities, and assigned job requirements.
Please visit the NMCPHC Occupational Medicine Fundamentals Course webpage
for more detailed information and student registration request:
For future planning purposes, we will be offering 2 OEM Fundamentals courses in FY20- dates TBD.
(Also, there will be an Occupational Health Nurse (OHN) Fundamentals Course in FY20- date TBD)
Please read the above webpage carefully to answer your questions.
USUHS School of Medicine Dean’s Annual Faculty Teaching Awards
Nominations for the School of Medicine Dean’s Annual Faculty Teaching Awards are due 15 JUL 2019. If you know of someone deserving of this award, the info on the nomination process is contained in these two documents:
USU Dean’s Annual Faculty Teaching Awards – Nominations due NLT 15 July 2019
On behalf of the Dean, you are invited to submit nominations for the Dean’s Annual Faculty Teaching Awards. The purpose and nomination/selection criteria are established in the documents below. The School of Medicine has many outstanding educators and this is an opportunity for them to be recognized.
Please consider submitting a nomination NLT 15 July 2019, as per the below guidelines. A list of previous winners is also below.
Syracuse Launches Program to Train Veterans in Political Careers
Want to run for office? Might want to check this out:
Syracuse Launches Program to Train Veterans in Political Careers
Association of Military Surgeons of the United States (AMSUS) Call for Abstracts and Presenters
The 128th Annual AMSUS meeting will be held at the Gaylord National Harbor, 26 December 2019. The theme of this year’s AMSUS continuing education meeting is “Transforming Healthcare through Partnership and Innovation”. This meeting provides a neutral platform for military, academia, industry and civilian health professionals to share successful ethical, and optimal professional healthcare practices and research findings and outcomes.
The call for meeting abstracts including panel sessions, lectures and posters has opened and healthcare providers are strongly encouraged to submit an abstract to present the current and planned best practices of their clinics and departments. Areas of interest include but are not limited to:
- Improving Health: The Art and Science of Medicine and Surgery – these clinically relevant presentations encompass the entire spectrum of care delivered by physicians, nurses, allied health personnel and healthcare extenders
- Leadership in Healthcare, Global Health, Operational Readiness and Humanitarian Support – topics include but are not limited to leading during a changing healthcare landscape, global health, operational readiness and training of medical forces, natural disaster response, family readiness, patient transport and transfer
outcomes/needs - Trauma Care, Behavioral Health, and TBI – the latest research in trauma and casualty care, behavioral health and traumatic brain injury (TBI)
- Advances in the Delivery of Healthcare – these presentations highlight the
increasing complexity of healthcare administration and business operations
while providing leading edge solutions in areas such as: health IT, medical
logistics, the business of healthcare, HR talent management and shared
services
Follow instructions for submission guidance attached. All abstracts must be submitted online by 3 June 2019 and are required to meet CME/CE accreditation standards to be accepted. Presentations should be free of commercial bias and approved through local COC and PAO.
Here are the forms:
USU Faculty Development Newsletter – FEB 2019
Here’s the Uniformed Services University February 2019 Faculty Development Newsletter, which tells you how to apply for a faculty appointment and promotion:
Command Surgeon at National Defense University – O5/O6
BLUF: Command Surgeon wanted for National Defense University (NDU) in Washington, DC. During the 2nd year you attend the senior service school.
Qualifications requested include:
- O5/O6
- Have confirmation from the Detailer that they could PCS and start in June 2019.
- Interested docs should be candidates for executive medicine in the future.
- They also should expect to do a utilization tour after attending NDU.
Here is the Memorandum of Agreement that provides some details.
All applications need to be submitted to CDR Melissa Austin at BUMED NLT than 22 FEB. Her e-mail is in the global.
Change in URL to DoD Opioid Prescriber Safety Training Program
BACKGROUND: All prescribing providers caring for TRICARE beneficiaries in military treatment facilities (MTFs) are required to complete the initial opioid prescriber safety training program (OPST) upon starting work in the MTF and every 3 years (or as otherwise directed) afterwards. This on line training had been located at https://opstp.cds.pesgce.com/hub.php as published in Defense Health Agency Procedural Instruction, Number 6025.04, dated, 8 June 2018. The web address was changed in November 2018 to:
https://dhaj7.adobeconnect.com/opioidtraining18/event/registration.html
Although a message was distributed at that time, the DHA Chief Medical Officer has learned that some MTFs may be referring to the DHAPI in search of this training module. The DHAPI will be updated with the correct web address. However, DHA requests you make widest dissemination of the new web address so that prescribing providers are not impeded in their effort to certify in this required training.
KEY MESSAGES:
- The web address for the DoD Opioid Prescriber Safety Training Program published in the Defense Health Agency Procedural Instruction, Number 6025.04, dated, 8 June 2018 has changed. The new url is:
https://dhaj7.adobeconnect.com/opioidtraining18/event/registration.html
- All prescribing providers caring for TRICARE beneficiaries in MTFs are required to complete initial OPST upon starting work in the MTF and every 3 years (or as otherwise directed) afterwards.
- The web address to OPST changed after DHAPI 6025.04 was published. A message was distributed alerting users to the new web address in November 2018, however the DHA Chief Medical Officer has learned that the new web address may not have reached across the entire MHS.
- An update to DHAPI 6025.04 is pending. Until then, please make widest dissemination possible of the new web address for the DoD Opioid Prescriber Safety Training Program.
Joel Schofer's Career Planning Blog 