civilian RN interested in Air Force nursing

Hi,

Let me try to give this a shot. I have been an Air Force nurse for about 4yrs now.
1. The way they calculate your time towards rank is for the first 6 years as an RN is 1/2 credit and then 1 for 1 after that. It looks like that would put you coming in as Cpt with 3yrs. Basically you will be a Cpt for 6-8yrs before being eligible promote for Major.
2. The base pay table is at http://www.dod.mil/dfas/money/milpay...e2005-rev1.doc. Currently your base pay should be 3125 a month + BAS + BAH. You should go to www.military.com for a better explanation of military pay.
3. Benefits are excellent in the military. We get 30 days vacation every year, free medical, free dental for you and low cost dental for your family, chance to go to school full time while on active duty, tdy for ceu's every other year on a competitive basis, the list goes on but those are some of the big ones.
4. For most places that you will work as a Capt you will be a regular staff nurse w/ minimal responsibilities, but still a lot more than your civilian counterparts.
5. LTC is fairly common rank if you're willing to do all the things they want you to do to get it. It will take about 7-8 yrs after becoming a Maj to be eligible to promote to LTC. Col is very competitive in the Air Force right now for nurses.
6. Promotions are based on your yearly performance reports and awards etc. Officers do not test for promotions.
7. Sign on bonus is 15,000 for 4yrs. right now.
8. I would stick w/ the OR nursing. OR nurses are in demand in the Air Force right now. Case Managers are not used as much in the Air Force. All the Case Managers we have where I'm stationed are civilian social workers. There isn't as much call for nurse managers in the military, because everyone we see is covered by insurance and has the same insurance.
9. Don't sweat Commissioned officer training or the PT. Just start working on jogging 1.5 miles and doing pushups/situps. Everything will come together as long as you exercise consistently 3-5x a wk.
10. You will be deployed at some point. Right now most of us in the Air Force are on an 15mo cycle. Which means you have the potential to deploy once every 15 months. The deployments are usually 4 months. Now saying all that I have been in almost 4yrs and yet to be deployed, but some of my friends seem to get popped every 12 months or so for deployment.
11. TDYs and Remotes: Your first TDY is COT. Most of the TDYs for nurses are volunteer and those are usually fairly short 1-2 wks. Remotes for nurses are usually only volunterer including Korea.
12. Tour of duty: You will spend approximately 3yrs at each duty station, and 2 yrs if it is an overseas assignment.
13. Civilian Husbands: I wouldn't know since I'm male, but my wife has seemed to adjust rather well. It mostly depends on how well their job will transfer. Alot of spouses are nurses, teachers or something that is easy to find a job from duty station to duty station.
14. Mostly female dominated.......Not in the military.......We are about 40% male and 60% female. We're taking over......lol. Most of the higher ranking nurses though are female, but that is slowly changing to a more equal mix.
15. Retirement: I don't know your age, but if you want to retire you need to be no older than 41-42 by the time of your first day on active duty otherwise you won't make the mandatory age of 62 for retirement.

As far as day to day stuff as a nurse: Well in general you are treated with more respect, the nurse pt ratios are better than most civilian hospitals, and you have more help d/t medical technicians or surgical techs if you are going to OR. The trade off is the extra military duties and the politics/bureauocracy.
It is always a lot of fun when you are the same rank as the docs or higher rank. It really puts a damper on docs with large egos. You will have different kind of relationship than you'reprobably used to with doctors. The doctors will, especially the younger ones, will treat you as colleagues for the most part. I definetively would recommend the military nursing atleast one time in almost every nurses career. It is not all chocolate and roses, and I definetively have my bad days where I have second thoughts about joining the military.


Good Luck!

Hey wtbcrna,

Excellent post.

Actually it is 30 days of paid vacation every year + 10 paid holidays per. You are never docked for sick time whether it is one hour or one year. You would usually rotate the holidays. As an OR nurse you will rarely work the holidays depending on the base you are assigned to, but you could be on call. OR nursing is pretty much a Mon-Fri day shift position w/ call. I doubt they will give you a brush up course, but most places will be more than generous in your orientation time.

Are there any bases close to you now?

Could I be an Air Force nurse if I have health problems? Specifically, mitral valve prolapse and Crohn's?

Do you think you could be deployed with minimal medical care with these problems? The reason I ask is basically that is what the Air Force will consider when looking over your package. You would have to get a waiver for these problems. If these are ongoing problems I don't think you would want to be an active duty nurse. On the other hand if these health problems don't cause you any problems at all and require minimal medical f/u you should look into it. Hope that helps...