• Rebekah Cole, Steven J Durning, Brian V Reamy, Hannah C Stewart, Samantha S Williamson, and Sherri L Rudinsky.
• Department of Military and Emergency Medicine, Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA.
• Mil Med. 2023 May 18; 188 (Suppl 2): 9810598-105.

IntroductionMilitary medical students enter residency through two main pathways: (1) The Uniformed Services University (USU) and (2) the Armed Services Health Professions Scholarship Program (HPSP). The purpose of this study was to compare how these two pathways prepare military medical students for residency.MethodsWe conducted semi-structured interviews with 18 experienced military residency program directors (PDs) in order to explore their perceptions of the preparedness of USU and HPSP graduates. We used a transcendental phenomenological qualitative research design to bracket our biases and guide our data analysis. Our research team coded each of the interview transcripts. We then organized these codes into themes, which served as the results of our study.ResultsFive themes emerged from our data regarding the residents' preparedness: (1) Ability to navigate the military culture, (2) understanding of the military's medical mission, (3) clinical preparation, (4) ability to navigate the Military Health System (MHS), and (5) teamwork. The PDs described how USU graduates better understand the military's medical mission and are more easily able to navigate the military culture and the MHS because of their lived experiences during military medical school. They also discussed the various levels of clinical preparation of HPSP graduates, in contrast to the USU graduates' more consistent skills and abilities. Finally, the PDs believed both groups to be strong team players.ConclusionsUSU students were consistently prepared for a strong start to residency because of their military medical school training. HPSP students often experienced a steep learning curve because of the newness of the military culture and MHS.Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States 2023. This work is written by (a) US Government employee(s) and is in the public domain in the US.

7 keywords...

hide…