Sick At The Academy

I have always wondered, what happens if you get the flu or other sickness during your time at the Naval Academy? Is there an infirmary of some sort you go to or do you just stay in Bancroft Hall for a couple days. They would'nt make you still do work outs or go to class, would they?

If you are ill or injured to the extent you cannot perform normal duties such as class, you get seen by either the med staff in Bancroft or over at the clinic on Hospital Point. You will get a "chit" that you take back to your company that places you on x days of "SIQ" (sick in quarters), class excusal, PT excusal, etc., whatever is appropriate. Part of military life. You have to be officially excused.

Routine minor illnesses -- most mids just persevere.

Ill enough for hospitalization/urgent care, over to NNMC Bethesda you go.

I must say that the healthcare opportunities for midshipmen at USNA probably are tough to match anywhere else. Having a tertiary care facility such as NNMC in such close proximity is a great "plus" for the school.

what about if you have a prescription allergy medicine you take daily? Does your parents send more medication through the mail or do you arrange for a local pharmacy to assist?

navy1314 said:

what about if you have a prescription allergy medicine you take daily? Does your parents send more medication through the mail or do you arrange for a local pharmacy to assist?

Click to expand...

The Navy has a core forumulary that all pharmacies in the Navy stock. Each pharmacy may add other medicines based on their particular demographics. If your medicine is something common then it is likely that you will simply get a new prescription and get it from the pharmacy there. If you have a medicine that is different than what is on the formulary, but the formulary has something in the same class they will likely switch you to the other medicine.

Here's the list of the basic formulary by generic name.

http://www.pec.ha.osd.mil/BCF/BCF_genr.htm

Has anyone on the forum evr been sick, what was it like for you?

During Plebe summer I was SIQ (sick in quarters) for a day. You basically just stay in your room all day, sleep, take care of anything you need to take care of. Someone will bring you food and they check on you to make sure you aren't getting worse.

My roommate was SIQ for two days during the academic year. Its nice because the door is closed and the upperclass cannot really bother anyone in the room, so you get to listen to music and sleep. Not to say that you should try to pretend to be sick so that you can do stuff you aren't supposed to. But its not a bad overall experience, other than the fact that you are sick and don't feel well.