With the completion of the first semester, my eyes turned to the summer. I knew that at some point in the summer I would be at BOLC, Basic Officer Leadership Course, at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. (Air Force equivalent: COT and Navy equivalent: OBC). BOLC is basic training for medical officers.
From everything I've read it is very different from the Basic Training that enlisted soldiers go through or the training other officer candidates might go through. Because we didn't have to earn our officer title, we were direct commissioned officers (like lawyers, medical professionals, and religious leaders). Therefore we need specific training to our very specific job. As future doctors our job is not to order around infantrymen, it is to lead a medical team, diagnose and treat.
I was excited, but curious. I hadn't heard anything about BOLC yet from anyone official. I wanted to fit in some research or an externship in my free weeks, but I had no idea when BOLC actually was going to be this summer. So after searching the internet with no answers I went to my next best resource: Facebook.
There is a Facebook group called, "Military HPSP Students & Physicians", and I encourage all HPSP students to join it. Any question you might have can be answered in that group. So I asked and soon my question was answer to my great disappointment. The way BOLC fell smack dab in the middle of my summer meant I didn't have enough time for a summer research project or a formal externship, or even to volunteer at our classes' summer service project.
As a HPSP student you go to an abbreviated version of BOLC, a six week and some days long course. There is a component you have to complete online before you get there, but I haven't really looked much into it yet.
I heard about applying to BOLC in early to mid January. The application is simple. My biggest question though was: fly or drive? I had done my research. Everyone told people to drive their own vehicle even if coming from far away, even if it meant not getting reimbursed for your extra travel. Because the Army will pay for gas up to the cost of a plane ticket, because if your fuel is going to be more than that, then you should be flying.
After talking it through with a couple of my fellow Army HPSPers at my school I decided to go ahead and fly. We're pretty far away from Texas, and for us flying was the cheaper choice if perhaps not the smartest one. I don't know yet. BOLC is in three months. I'll let you know then.
One other thing of note is that when it comes to HPSP, no one knows anything. We follow blindly until we heard otherwise. I am fortunate in that we have five Army HPSPers in my class. We help each other out, and we have a Military Medical Interest Group which is a great resource as well.
But mostly, we do what we think we should be doing, making class our first priority. Because ultimately nothing matters if we flunk out of medical school.
So now I am officially caught up to present day. Posts with come up as I find things to write about. Until next time!
2LT Lister
No comments:
Post a Comment