Joining the Air Force or Navy as an FNP, is it possible?

[mikeparks22]

I have been talking to recruiters for the Navy and the Air Force. I am about to graduate with a MSN and will be a family nurse practitioner. I have been a RN for 6 years, and have had my BSN for 4 years. I really want to go active duty in either the navy or air force. The Air Force recruiter I talked to told me that they really are not even using FNP's and they aren't recruiting them. He said I can go in as a RN, as either a clinical nurse or a flight nurse. Is this true? Should I talk to a different healthcare recruiter?

With the Navy, the healthcare recruiter told me that there are no positions for a FNP right now. When the openings come out, which I think he said happens once or twice a year, it will tell them if there are any and how many FNP slots there are. But there are not any that ever come up, and really only psych NP's and CRNA positions come up.

So, how the heck can I get in active duty to the Navy or the Air Force?

Does anyone know if there are FNP positions in the army?

Please help!

[Lunah, MSN, RN]

The services are overstrength when it comes to nurses, so this is not surprising. You can check with the Army, but their utilization of FNPs is low as well. What is your driving factor for wanting to go active duty?

[jfratian, DNP, RN, CRNA]

FNPs seem to be chronically over-strength, typically at 90%+. Also, the fact that you don't have a DNP hurts you. All of the internal programs within the AF that train RNs to become NPs are all DNP programs; those programs are where a lot of AF NPs come from.

I would still talk to other recruiters in all 3 branches, because I went to basic officer training (4 years ago) with several direct commission NPs. However, the recruiting situation could have changed over 4 years.

To be honest, your pay isn't really that different between RN and NP in the military. You'll come it at the same rank: Captain/O-3 (as they treat all MSN degrees the same and treat all RN and NP experience equally). I'm pretty sure the incentive special pay bonuses are similar too.

One caveat: if you join as an RN, you likely won't be able to switch to an NP later.