2012 NAVY GRADUATE MEDICAL EDUCATION OVERVIEW
The Navy Medical Department offers a wide range of postgraduate training in a variety of medical specialties and views the process of professional development through Graduate Medical Education (GME) as a progressive maturing sequence for individuals as both physicians and as naval officers. As a valuable part of the learning process, a significant number of medical officers serve in an operational/utilization tour as a general medical officer (GMO), flight surgeon (FS), or undersea medical officer (UMO) following internship (GME-1) completion. GMOs are assigned to surface ships and land-based surface squadron staffs, Navy Seabee battalions and Marine Corps units. A few GMOs are assigned to our hospitals and their branch clinics in the US and overseas; but these individuals have generally completed an initial operational tour in direct support of the operating forces. Flight surgery and undersea/diving medicine opportunities exist for those interested in those fields. Flight surgeons are assigned to both Navy and Marine Corps aviation units and UMOs are assigned to deployable submarine tenders (large support ships), land-based submarine squadron staffs and deployable and land-based diving units. Obligated service is repaid on a 1-year for 1-year basis while serving as a GMO/UMO/FS.
Navy GME programs include:Full-Time Inservice (FTIS) internship, residency and fellowship programs, Full-Time Outservice (FTOS) programs, Other Federal Institution (OFI) programs, Navy Active Duty Delay for Specialists (NADDS) program, the 1-Year Delay program, and the Financial Assistance Program (FAP).
There are currently 67 Navy FTIS programs supported by 860 authorized training billets for Navy FTIS internship, residency and fellowship programs located at 9 different Navy GME training facilities. Our FTIS programs are located in three multi-discipline medical centers (Bethesda MD, San Diego CA, and Portsmouth VA) and five Family Medicine hospitals (Bremerton WA, Camp Lejeune NC, Camp Pendleton CA, Jacksonville FL, and Pensacola FL), and the Naval Aerospace Medical Institute in Pensacola FL for the Residency in Aerospace Medicine.
All eligible Naval medical officers are encouraged to apply to the annual GME Selection Board (GMESB) for their choice of training opportunities sponsored by the Navy Medical Department. Each year a BUMED Notice containing application guidance is issued in June and included as part of the on-line Web application, which is activated at the beginning of July. Applications are due in late-September, the GMESB is held the week after Thanksgiving, and the results are released in mid-December.
Specific questions regarding Medical Corps professional training should be directed to the BUMED Specialty Leader for that field of medicine or to the FTIS program director for a specific FTIS GME program. See the GME Directory for contact information.