Recognizing the Importance of Leadership: A Recent Graduate Develops a Corpsman

Developing the Ready Military Medical Force: military-specific training in Graduate Medical Education

Introduction

Graduate Medical Education plays a critical role in training the next generation of military physicians, ensuring they are ready to uphold the dual professional requirements inherent to being both a military officer and a military physician. This involves executing the operational duties as a commissioned leader while also providing exceptional medical care in austere environments and in harm's way. The purpose of this study is to review prior efforts at developing and implementing military unique curricula (MUC) in residency training programs.

Methods

We performed a literature search in PubMed (MEDLINE), Embase, Web of Science, and the Defense Technical Information Center through August 8, 2023, including terms "graduate medical education" and "military." We included articles if they specifically addressed military curricula in residency with terms including "residency and operational" or "readiness training", "military program", or "military curriculum".

Results

We identified 1455 articles based on title and abstract initially and fully reviewed 111. We determined that 64 articles met our inclusion criteria by describing the history or context of MUC, surveys supporting MUC, or military programs or curricula incorporated into residency training or military-specific residency programs.

Conclusion

We found that although there have been multiple attempts at establishing MUC across training programs, it is difficult to create a uniform curriculum that can be implemented to train residents to a single standard across services and specialties.

COVID-19 Crisis: The Pandemic Highlights the Unique Training and Skills of Military Physicians Afforded by Military-Specific Graduate Medical Education

Military physicians trained in military Graduate Medical Education programs are uniquely prepared to lead in austere and chaotic environments based on formal and informal curricula taught in military treatment facilities. The coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic highlighted this reality when military-trained physician leaders were challenged to lead change directly from the front.