[robertesteele]

First off I would like to thank everyone here for tips and for being such a great support to each other. I used the site many times to find tips for interviews. I was recently accepted to a CRNA program in Utah. I have talked with a couple of guys who are CRNA's in the Army reserves and they have really enjoyed their experience. I'm not sure if the army is for me but it seems like a great deal to help with money to get through school. It also seems like in the army they get a lot of training.

I would like to know if anyone here has comments about joining the army reserves to help pay for the CRNA program. What things should I ask the recruiter? What are the drawbacks to joining the army? Obviously the possibility of being deployed is a drawback, but I was told that as a CRNA I could only be deployed for a maximum of 90 days in a 2 year period. Any advice that people have would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[CAPRN77]

The Army Reserve has a program called STRAP (specialized training assistance program). In this program, while you're in school you get a stiped of $1,906 per month and you also get your monthly drill pay (probably around $400/month depending on rank and prior service). You're only commitment while you're in school is to fax a paper to the Army each month verifying that you're still in school. There is also $50,000 for loan repayment in addition to the stipend and the drill pay. Your obligation will then be 2 years in the reserves for each year that you received the stipend. I am currently in CRNA school and I just went back into the Army and will start receiving STRAP payments as soon as all the administrative stuff goes through. The Navy Reserve also has essentially the same program. PM me with questions.
Chris

[macanes]

Originally Posted by robertesteele

I'm not sure if the army is for me but it seems like a great deal to help with money to get through school.

I cannot emphasize enough how critical -- and superfantabulistic personally -- it is to have the Army pay you and pay for your school while you slave away in graduate school (and a tough one at that), nay, REQUIRE you NOT to work whilst learning. A thing of beauty, surely.

Originally Posted by robertesteele

It also seems like in the army they get a lot of training.

Best in the world . . . oh, chill out, Navy. You, too, are excellent. Just . . . chill.

Originally Posted by robertesteele

What are the drawbacks to joining the army? Obviously the possibility of being deployed is a drawback, but I was told that as a CRNA I could only be deployed for a maximum of 90 days in a 2 year period.

Don't know where they got that 90 days in 2 years. Active duty deploys six months at a time every 18 months or so . . . needs of the Army and all that. Unless you're assigned to a FORCOM unit (field unit, part of the cadre, not PROFIS -- on loan -- from a hospital assignment, which most medical personnel are -- many fewer FORCOM slots in the Medical Command). FORCOM people deploy with their units for a year (or more) at a time.

Reserve rules are probably different. Still, we get a lot of reservists rotating through our hospital for 90 days at a time. That two years thing might be stretching it, but it sounds semi-close to correct. My gut feeling is 90 days once a year or 18 months seems more like it. Have to ask a reservist.

Deployment-wise, depends on your point of view, I suppose. It sucks, I hear. I don't know how I was not deployed my whole time on active duty -- worked in a busy hospital with tough bosses who were chronically short, or just lucky (or unlucky), I guess. On the other hand . . . I also hear it is an experience like no other. You decide.

Good luck.

[wtbcrna]

Originally Posted by macanes

Best in the world . . . oh, chill out, Navy. You, too, are excellent. Just . . . chill.

Hey, what about us poor AF nurses...

[Walsh8]

If you are in the STRAP program, are you free from deployment while you are in school?

[CAPRN77]

Originally Posted by Walsh8

If you are in the STRAP program, are you free from deployment while you are in school?

Yes you are. You have to finish CRNA school if they expect you to be able to perform as a CRNA.

Also, the deployments for CRNA's are 90 days "boots on ground" but it can be as often as once a year. That means that you spend 90 in the country to which you are deployed. The total length of the activation may be longer but that additional time is spent in the U.S. training and what not. Many CRNA's that I've talked to have chosen to stay on their deployment longer than the 90 days though. This is because they felt like it was their duty and it also helps them avoid another deployment within a year.

[macanes]

Originally Posted by wtbcrna

Hey, what about us poor AF nurses...

Well, since the Army trains a lot of y'all, you'd have to say you've got "Arrrrrmy traaaiiinning, sir!"

Specifically, though, since I'm not aware of the AF having it's own CRNA program, and the Army and Navy are top-rated, I was not slighting my brothers in blue (at least not in that posting 8) ). Hey, some of my best friends are . . . well, no.

8)


Z

[wtbcrna]

Originally Posted by macanes

Well, since the Army trains a lot of y'all, you'd have to say you've got "Arrrrrmy traaaiiinning, sir!"

Specifically, though, since I'm not aware of the AF having it's own CRNA program, and the Army and Navy are top-rated, I was not slighting my brothers in blue (at least not in that posting 8) ). Hey, some of my best friends are . . . well, no.

8)


Z

Well let's see....the Navy program is intergrating with the USUHS program. Within the next couple of years all Navy CRNA students will go to USUHS only.... So it will be USUHS and that other program for military nurses...lol And let's see USUHS is ranked #6 not #8, but when you consider that the former head of the Army program just applied at USUHS for a faculty position....It just shows you that even the ex-program director for the Army CRNA program knows which program is best....

Not to mention that several Army CRNA students go to USUHS, and the majority of Army phase I PhD faculty get their PhDs at USUHS.

Hmm....and with the Army program that keeps switching university affliations, USUHS going to DNP prior to 2015, and the move to intergrate all military medical services/education.......I foresee the Army's program integrating with USUHS too...

But don't worry the Army program will always be number 1 in our hearts for drop-out rates that is....

All in all I think the Army should be saying USUHS traaaiiinning sir!

[robertesteele]

Thanks everyone for all the responses. I have talked with an nurse army recruiter and he was very nice. He wasn't pushy at all and he said he wanted to give me any information I wanted and that if I felt it was the right decision for me and my family then he could help. He gave me phone numbers for other CRNA's that are in the reserves that work at the VA hospital here in Salt Lake. I talked with them and they both seemed to really enjoy the reserves. I was told that it the possibility of being deployed was currently only 90 days in a two year period, but that could possibly change if we got involved in some conflict and the president signed a bill changing it. I was also told that you can volunteer for an assignment somewhere and if that goes through then that will count as your time being deployed. Also if you are deployed or if you volunteer to go somewhere for 90 days then you don't have to continue to give the one weekend a month and two weeks a year. Does the navy offer the same benefits as the army. I am accepted to a program here in Utah can I do the Navy reserves and go to the program here in Utah.