What's it like being a female medical officer ? Are there any challenges you have to overcome?

Hello,

If you mean, are there any challenges I have had to overcome because I'm female, then no. The Army medical services are perhaps slightly unique in that we are fairly close to 50:50 in terms of male:female ratio.

Saying that, I have also deployed with teams as the only female, but it's always been fine and I didn't ever feel like I was treated differently.

If you mean, are there any challenges as a medical officer, then that is slightly different. We do the short commissioning course rather than the long commissioning course, so sometimes your ability as an 'officer' may be questioned by your non-clinical colleagues. So in that respect, yes, I have found there have been some challenges to overcome. But, I have accepted that there are short falls in my knowledge compared to some officers who have completed the long course, and while I know enough for my role as a clinical officer, sometimes it can be useful to ask for help with regards to more staff officer type tasks.

This is a really helpful forum, thank you.

When you say the short commissioning course, how long is that? I have seen the video about the 44 week training at Sandhurst.

Can I also ask what the timescale of career development is being a medical officer? I am post FY2 currently taking a year out to do a Masters in Healthcare Leadership. I am stuck between applying for GP and Emergency Medicine and after researching the army, think being a medical officer sounds right up my street. How long are you a GDMO for and at what point do you apply for speciality training?

Really grateful for your response, thank you.

Hi Harriet,

I believe the SCC is currently 8 weeks, it has been reformed quite significantly over the past few years, so it has changed in length a few times. If you're looking for more information on it, you might have more luck looking at the reserve officer part of the website as they do the course with the regular professionally qualified officers.

Timeline wise it tends to go something like;
Year 1 Oct - Dec: Short commissioning course
Year 1 Jan - May: post graduate medical officers course (this may change due to some restructuring post COVID)
Year 1 June - Year 3 July: GDMO
Year 3 August: Start specialty training.

You apply for specialty training at the start of your 3rd year in the Army, to start the following august.

To be a regimental medical officer you would need to go down the GP route. If you're torn between GP and EM, most military docs at the moment go down the GP route and do a bit of PHEM/PHEC as well. Saying that, GP via the Army is currently more competitive than EM is.

The other option would be doing specialty training in the NHS (and perhaps joining the reserves) and then applying to transfer to the regular Army once you have finished specialty training.

I hope that helps, let me know if you have any more questions, and I hope the masters is going well!