On Base: Uniformed Services University Of The Health Sciences
USUHS Dispenses Medical Education... And MoreBy Donna Miles
Winter 2008-09
Navy Ens. Sandra McLaughlin could have gone to medical school anywhere, all expenses paid. But after a year at
“It didn’t really feel like a good fit,” said McLaughlin, reflecting on a climate that “isn’t always favorable to the military.”
With fellow U.S. Naval Academy graduates serving in harm’s way, McLaughlin said, she felt committed to becoming the best military doctor possible. So she transferred to an institution dedicated to training military doctors, graduate nurses and other specialized health care professionals for the unique challenges of military medicine: the
After receiving her medical degree and a promotion to lieutenant, McLaughlin is off to an internship at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, Va., before joining the fleet.
“This is a full-package program,” she said of the USUHS curriculum, which blends a traditional medical education with operational military training.
Students at the school get all the academics and hands-on training offered at any other accredited medical school, but also something more, explained Dr. Charles Rice, university president: They’re trained to be military officers and leaders, able to provide top-notch medical care in difficult or austere conditions.
“The school of medicine trains its students to become the finest physicians in the largest, most sophisticated hospitals in the military health care system,” said Dr. Larry Laughlin, dean of the university’s F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine. “But what makes us unique is that we also train our students to be able to practice good medicine in bad places. That’s what sets us apart.”
The curriculum emphasizes subjects just touched on at many medical schools: prevention, combat resuscitation, global infectious disease, humanitarian assistance and medical response to weapons of mass destruction.
Two major field training exercises at Fort Indiantown Gap,
Lectures by uniformed medical professionals who have served in combat or supported humanitarian assistance missions offer students unique insights. “We get the experience of our senior medical officers and non-medical officers about what they went through, the challenges they faced, and how they dealt with them,” said Army Capt. Massimo Federico, valedictorian of the school’s 2008 graduating class.
“It adds another dimension to our training, because we all know that we will be participating in something like that at some point in the future,” said Federico, who spent nine years as an Army medical evacuation pilot before coming to USUHS. “That’s why we’re here training to be physicians.”
Carol Scheman, USUHS vice president, said she found something distinctive here that’s simply not found at other medical institutions. “There’s a real sense of mission here that sets the students apart,” she said. “What’s evident here that these students are committed to something larger than themselves.”
Also unique to USUHS is a sense of teamwork not necessarily found at other medical schools. Air Force Capt. Brent Feldt, a member of the Class of 2008, said he picked up on the difference quickly when he began interviewing at medical schools.
“At other schools, you got more of a sense that people were looking out for themselves,” said Feldt, a former Air Force communications officer. “But here, students are really motivated to help each other out and help each other succeed. That’s because we know we will be working together for a long time.”
“Our students know and understand from day one that they will be practicing and working together for probably the next 25 years,” Laughlin said. “That changes the attitude of interaction. They become more of a team. Early on, they begin to depend on one other rather than competing in traditional ways. They are bonded.”
Regular exposure to wounded troops provides a regular reminder of the important calling graduates will face. “One walk through Walter Reed [
It’s not a job just anyone can do. Only one of every 12 applicants gets admitted to USUHS, and only after a rigorous interview process by military physicians, Laughlin said.
Rice said he hears it time and again: Line commanders say they find leadership skills in USUHS graduates that they don’t find elsewhere.
“They can spot one of our graduates in very short order for the ability to quickly figure out what assets they have available, how to organize them and then how to deploy them,” he said. “That’s a skill set that’s enormously valuable in an operational setting, and our graduates are used to doing that.”
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Donna Miles wrote an extended version of this article for the American Forces Press Service. DoD photo by Donna Miles.