our nurse transition program (ntp) continues to be an integral component in developing our new nurses. we graduated 212 nurses in fiscal year (fy) 2010 from eight military and two civilian locations. in december 2010, we graduated the third class from scottsdale healthcare system in arizona. this outstanding civilian program has produced 56 nurses since its inception.
due to the resounding success of this military-civilian collaboration, we decided to consolidate resources and create four ntp centers of excellence. a civilian magnet facility, tampa general hospital, florida, was recently approved as one of these sites and the training agreement was signed 24 february 2011. the remaining three centers of excellence will be in scottsdale, arizona; san antonio, texas; and cincinnati, ohio; and will provide our new nurses with the experiences so crucial to their professional development.
highlights about force management:
the goal of force management is to design, develop, and resource the air force nurse corps to sustain a world-class healthcare force in support of our national security strategy and align our inventory and requirements by specialty and grade. we must have the right number of people to accomplish the mission. in fy 2010, we recruited 170 fully qualified nurses and selected 126 new nursing graduates exceeding our recruiting goal of 290. in line with initiatives to decrease air force end-strength, nurse corps recruiting service goals were reduced in 2011. as we face force shaping initiatives, it is critical that we continue to develop programs that provide the clinical ability essential to the sustainment of our nursing force.
for those interested in getting a commission, here are the previous years recruiting numbers:
