Air Force Nursing Bonus, Student Loan Repayment

1) I wish I could delete postings.

2) Nurses (except in a couple special cases) do not get trained with or issued a weapon therfore we lack the most basic (and at the same time, the most technical) warrior training in the Air Force. The Army...Boot Camp/Officer training for nurses or whatever it's called....includes far more warrior training than what the Air Force includes in the 4.5 week COT. Not complaining...Just saying. And I'll reiterate: I'm not a soldier, nor do I ever want to be. I'd rather not be put on the front lines in combat and I don't expect that I'll be trained to do so.

3) Feel free to give the run down on the air force because as it stands now, there aren't too many Active Air Force Nurses that want to give any input anywhere on this site but there are a whole bunch of aspiring airmen with a whole lot of questions that no recruiter can answer. I'm aware that they are busy. Military life..

4) I asked the nurse I interviewed with this same question: What are "additional duties?"

AF nurses on the normal deployment rotation status should be qualifying with M9 and M16 on a regular basis. I believe it is every 18mo.

Miss Mab,

Out of curiosity, what exactly are you doing that entails so much non nursing duties? Have you moved to permanent ancilliary position or something? I don't think I ever spent more than 5-10% of my time in non-nursing duties execpt for the occasional deployment related issues/training.

Unless you're flying...then there is a lot of aircraft training that is not nursing related.

Beat me to it....

Wtbcrna---

Nope, still hold the same job. 46F and no doubt there's a lot of static A/C training and related currencies to keep up with that are quite time consuming as Rghbsn mentioned above.
I don't think the percentage I used was too far off from reality though.
Keep in mind, however, that as a Reservist my duty experience probably doesn't exactly translate simply over to the active side.
I suspect the five to ten percent of time you're spending on readiness and deployment issues ends up consuming a much larger chunk of the 2 or (4-??) days that we end up being on base each month.
You still have Inspections/ORI/exercises, Wing med/dental compliance(Long-Fly? Too bad, there went 1/2 your entire 'month') CBTs, PFT-- all those 'extras' that usually require equal compliance with the AD.
Not a whine, it just is.
Remember that AES, except when deployed, has minimal clinical responsibilities and absolutely zero patient interaction. It's required that you be actively engaged in civilian nursing practice to remain up to date with that.
Actually, I'm going to revise my earlier estimate and go w/80% of time spent on non-nurse things now, though most of us do have addtl. duties that necessitate RN knowledge and a valid license.
But without question and whether Reserve or otherwise, ultimately your specific job WILL vary.

For Jay, my intent was to ensure that you(as in the Royal You)understood that in the everyday life of a military nurse, regardless of branch, things appear much more alike than any marked differences that may have been highlighted for you.
I did qualify w/M9 early last year,fwiw. It is intended for personal protection though I could imagine you might more quickly warm to the idea of a 'Warrior" ethos if/when you eventually receive your AF commission.
Best!

What AES are you with?

The royal me eh? Confused?

I do not know why I am told time and time again that I will not qualify with a weapon. I was so disappointed I went to Smith and wesson and trained and applied for my Class A.

I will see air craft training? Really? Sounds fun...

You will have aircraft training if you're going to be a flight nurse. All personnel have to qualify with a weapon to the best of my knowledge...or at least have familiarization training (which is quite different than qualification)

to quickly touch back onto the topic of bonuses and loan repayment, does anyone know if in years past the bonus has been roughly the same? I hear it was $30,000 for FY2009- is that pretty typical or was it maybe $10,000 in 2008 with potential to be $5,000 in 2010? I've tried finding the trend elsewhere but with no luck. Just curious if signing on for a fourth year with the Air force is likely to turn out in my favor or if three years would be a better deal if the bonus is no good.

According to the FY2010 Air Force PROPOSED budget (And I want to make sure ya'll know that this has not been approved yet), it states:

Nurse Accession Bonus (NAB) - An accession bonus of up to $30,000 for a four-year contract was authorized by the FY 2008 NDAA and refined by HA Policy
07-023 and extension letter for FY09. Currently offered is $20,000 if taken in conjunction with Health Professions Loan Repayment Program (HPLRP)

assistance. If no HPLRP was taken, the full $30,000 lump sum bonus is offered for each qualified nurse accession.

So this will need to get the extension letter for FY2010 to be authorized if they want to keep it the same. If you would like to look at the budget yourself you can find it below. The information above was pulled from page 35.

http://www.saffm.hq.af.mil/shared/me...090511-038.pdf

via my recruiter for 2009 a three year contract gave you loan repayment only, four years got you the 30,000 bonus, and six years got you both. is that what that is saying? the last part makes it look like any contract length gets you the bonus? "If no HPLRP was taken, the full $30,000 lump sum bonus is offered for each qualified nurse accession."

(i'm mostly interested because i only have $5000 in loans so the bonus is clearly a better deal. but if i can sign a shorter contract for the same amount of money that would make more sense and then sign on for more time later)