airforce bases

jfratian, DNP, RN, CRNA · Sep 15, 2016

Nurses can be stationed at most Air Force bases. Do you have a specialty: OR, ICU, ER, NICU? Those bases are much more limited. I'd have to know about your situation to get you good info.

jfratian, DNP, RN, CRNA · Sep 15, 2016

Also a nurse with less than 4 years of experience must be usually stationed at certain bases. An experienced non-specialty nurse (med-surg, PACU, outpatient) could go almost anywhere.

carolinapooh, BSN, RN · Sep 16, 2016

A nurse with less than a year of experience is generally sent to one of the few larger inpatient hospitals. It's not four years of experience and never has been - at least, not since I've been on active duty. And the NC is so poorly manned right now that my understanding is that's not even the case anymore - if you have enough experience to not go to NTP, they'll send you to any non-specialty unit, inpatient or not.

I know one person who had seven months' experience - just enough to not be required to attend NTP - who was sent straight to the infertility clinic at Wilford Hall after COT.

I was sent to the progressive care Bone Marrow Transplant Unit at Wilford Hall (it is now at SAMMC on the other side of San Antonio) with just about two years' experience - but that two years was at a major cancer center.

carolinapooh, BSN, RN · Sep 16, 2016

Officers get a bit more leeway with the so-called "dream sheet" than enlisteds do (I've been both, so I've got some experience). But the needs of the Air Force will always come first.

I was non-volunteered to an overseas one year remote tour and then sent to school to do a job I've never done before. So it does happen to us too. It's rare - and mine was mostly driven by some overseas eligibility dates that are artificially backdated due to prior service time. I joke that they finally found me for a remote assignment. All in a day's pay.

However, more and more non-volunteer overseas assignments are happening in the Nurse Corps due to poor manning and the DOD directive that says overseas bases must be manned at no less than 95%. My departure from my previous unit put their nurses at 52% manned. (It would've been 33%, but they managed to squeak in a civilian contract requisition just before the pre-fiscal year closeout.)

I could've refused the assignment, but would then have to exercise what's called the seven day rule - you literally have seven days after you refuse to begin your separation processing. I'm too close to retirement to do that (and I've worked too hard for this commission), so I took the remote. I've been stationed far worse places than here.

pulchra, BSN · Sep 17, 2016

I'm just doing tele right now. trying to be hired in ICU before joining. would this make a difference?

pulchra, BSN · Sep 17, 2016

Officers get a bit more leeway with the so-called "dream sheet" than enlisteds do (I've been both, so I've got some experience). But the needs of the Air Force will always come first.
I was non-volunteered to an overseas one year remote tour and then sent to school to do a job I've never done before. So it does happen to us too. It's rare - and mine was mostly driven by some overseas eligibility dates that are artificially backdated due to prior service time. I joke that they finally found me for a remote assignment. All in a day's pay.
However, more and more non-volunteer overseas assignments are happening in the Nurse Corps due to poor manning and the DOD directive that says overseas bases must be manned at no less than 95%. My departure from my previous unit put their nurses at 52% manned. (It would've been 33%, but they managed to squeak in a civilian contract requisition just before the pre-fiscal year closeout.)
I could've refused the assignment, but would then have to exercise what's called the seven day rule - you literally have seven days after you refuse to begin your separation processing. I'm too close to retirement to do that (and I've worked too hard for this commission), so I took the remote. I've been stationed far worse places than here.

what was the schooling for?? what type of job was it? also what is NTP?

jfratian, DNP, RN, CRNA · Sep 17, 2016

Yeah, the 4 years thing is only because a lot of those outpatient clinic slots say 1st Lt on them (4 years civilian would equate to starting rank of 1st Lt). A 2d Lt can also fill those, and so it's at the AF's discretion. I think you're more likely to be sent to inpatient med-surg than a clinic with

NTP is a 3 month orientation program for new nurses fresh out of school. I can't remember if the cut off is less than 6 months or 1 year to go to NTP. I'm guessing you have more than 1 year of experience so you don't need to worry about it.

Yes the ICU thing matters. If you have 1 year of full time ICU experience when you join, and you apply/accept an ICU slot, you'll enter with an ICU identifier. That will generally restrict the number of bases you can be sent to. Off the top of my head, I believe: Elmendorf (Anchorage, AK), Travis (Sacremento, CA), Nellis (Las Vegas), Wright Patterson (Dayton, OH), Eglin (Destin, FL), Langley (Northern VA), SAMMC (San Antonio, TX) and rarely Landstuhl (Germany).

If you don't have the 1 year of ICU, you basically can be sent anywhere: outpatient clinics, inpatient med-surg, GI, PACU, random BS administrative positions, etc.

carolinapooh, BSN, RN · Sep 20, 2016

Your odds of getting a random administrative position as a second or even a first lieutenant are pretty much nonexistent. I'm a captain with seven years in commissioned and I have yet to get a random administrative position. They have no shortages there. Not too long ago the call for candidates for flight nurses included up to lieutenant colonels (O5). They have shortages on the ground.

What they were doing was taking people like me, giving them patient oriented jobs, and then stacking what used to be a separate position on top of us. It's been so bad at times it came up in climate surveys, and was actually recently addressed directly to us via email by the Secretary of the Air Force herself. It's changing, and it needs to - it's an Air Force wide problem.

Telling you what I do will identify me clearly, as I am the only person on my base who does what I do. It's valuable training and I don't mind the job, but I won't be doing it when I return to the US by my own choice.

pulchra, BSN · Dec 3, 2016

Your odds of getting a random administrative position as a second or even a first lieutenant are pretty much nonexistent. I'm a captain with seven years in commissioned and I have yet to get a random administrative position. They have no shortages there. Not too long ago the call for candidates for flight nurses included up to lieutenant colonels (O5). They have shortages on the ground.
What they were doing was taking people like me, giving them patient oriented jobs, and then stacking what used to be a separate position on top of us. It's been so bad at times it came up in climate surveys, and was actually recently addressed directly to us via email by the Secretary of the Air Force herself. It's changing, and it needs to - it's an Air Force wide problem.
Telling you what I do will identify me clearly, as I am the only person on my base who does what I do. It's valuable training and I don't mind the job, but I won't be doing it when I return to the US by my own choice.

what do you mean by "they have shortages on ground"? I'm thinking about being reserved. What do you think?

pulchra, BSN · Dec 3, 2016

Yeah, the 4 years thing is only because a lot of those outpatient clinic slots say 1st Lt on them (4 years civilian would equate to starting rank of 1st Lt). A 2d Lt can also fill those, and so it's at the AF's discretion. I think you're more likely to be sent to inpatient med-surg than a clinic with
NTP is a 3 month orientation program for new nurses fresh out of school. I can't remember if the cut off is less than 6 months or 1 year to go to NTP. I'm guessing you have more than 1 year of experience so you don't need to worry about it.
Yes the ICU thing matters. If you have 1 year of full time ICU experience when you join, and you apply/accept an ICU slot, you'll enter with an ICU identifier. That will generally restrict the number of bases you can be sent to. Off the top of my head, I believe: Elmendorf (Anchorage, AK), Travis (Sacremento, CA), Nellis (Las Vegas), Wright Patterson (Dayton, OH), Eglin (Destin, FL), Langley (Northern VA), SAMMC (San Antonio, TX) and rarely Landstuhl (Germany).
If you don't have the 1 year of ICU, you basically can be sent anywhere: outpatient clinics, inpatient med-surg, GI, PACU, random BS administrative positions, etc.

BUT, they train you even if you've never done some stuff right? like PACU.. i do not have any experiences in.

jfratian, DNP, RN, CRNA · Dec 6, 2016

Well, yes and no. They train you if they really need people in an area and your timing/desires happens to coincide. Most likely, you'll start out on a med-surg floor if you don't come in with a specialty. After a year to 18 months, they'll start moving people to outpatient clinics, GI, and PACU. I got lucky and was moved to PACU. A lot of people don't get many choices and have to stay med-surg their whole assignment or go to family health, internal medicine, etc. There is chance involved.

The problem is that PACU doesn't have it's own identifier. Therefore, there's no guarantee that you'll get to stay in PACU when you move to your next base (or that your next base will even have a PACU).

All of the above is for active duty. I've never been guard or reserve. From what I hear, it sounds like they don't do much re-training in the reserves. You drill so infrequently, it's not like there's a lot of time to get the new experience. It would be like getting a PRN job in a specialty you've never worked in before.