July 2012 Air Force NTP Board

nick7331 · Apr 2, 2012

Anybody?

Brittanyanne04 · Apr 4, 2012

Hey, I am also in the process of applying for the NTP boards in July, with a tentative graduation in May. My recruiter has been rather difficult to communicate with and I wonder as well what to do with my down time. I was told to call his office in June if I wanted to apply because February was too early?

I was planning to apply for local positions in addition to the Air Force because I heard that there are very limited slots for the program this year. I also thought about just working for a year in the civilian world and avoiding the entire NTP process.

Please let me know if you hear anything, and good luck!

nick7331 · Apr 14, 2012

First off, best of luck to you. Communication with recruiters can be a bit of a challenge at times and I have had to be fairly persistent. I started applying in October in 2011 for this upcoming board so I would definitely talk to him earlier rather than later. There are quite a few different pieces for the application and they all seem to take longer than you would think.

I haven't really heard anything about a possible COT date but it looks like last years group, were accepted in August and went in January. My recruiter said he wasn't able to give me a date and that it could be end of August, October, or January. I turned down a job at a hospital where I did my capstone due to it being a minimum contract commitment of 18 months. I just don't want to sit around doing nothing for a possible Air Force slot but at this point, it is my number one route. It'll be interesting to see what happens and I wish I could hit the fast forward button!

LN75 · Apr 15, 2012

jan 30 by aura_of_laura

quote from ln75

how long is ntp? the packet my reciter gave me says 10 weeks, but i've seen postings on here of folks who were in it for 9 weeks or 11 weeks. does the length of ntp vary depending on the base/hospital you're assigned to? is it possible that i could be assigned to go through ntp in a civilian hospital? during ntp, are you sort of "attached-at-the-hip" to a mentor, like precepting or orienting to a new unit in a civilian hospital?

how long is cot? the packet my recruiter gave me says 4 weeks, but i've read a few posts saying that it was longer or shorter too...

can you give me a ball-park time frame for how long it could take between submitting my application for ntp, getting notified of the results, and beginning a cot class if selected?

what are your thoughts on which track i should apply for? honestly, i'm not really interested in med-surg or ob nursing...i really want to be in critical care, emergency, and eventually flight nursing. i've heard that there are more slots available for the med-surg track, but generally fewer applicants for the ob track.

how about scrubs or uniforms? it looks like some of the bases (like keesler) have their nurses come in in abus then change to scrubs...do you know about any other bases? in all the years i was active duty (1997-2008), i only ever saw nurses in bdus, but that was at aviano, holloman, luke and sheppard and only in clinics...i never set foot in an af hospital.

lastly, my recruiter tells me that if accepted i'll most likely be stationed at one of the bigger hospitals in the conus for my first assignment. have you ever heard of any newly commissioned nurses being stationed overseas for their first assignment? either in one of the hospitals like germany or alaksa, or at a base with a smaller clinic?

i know this is a ton of questions, and even if you dont know the answers, i appreciate whatever info you can share! :)

i didn't go through ntp because i already had several years of nursing experience - i think anyone who has less than one year of rn practice goes through ntp. there are only a few locations to do ntp, scottsdale, az, wright-patt, oh, and i think in florida. we used to do it at travis, but i think they're stopping it after our current class. i think that they sometimes use civilian hospitals, but you'll be with a cohort of military nurses, with an instructor guiding you through everything. it's very much like a preceptorship, from what i understand. i think it's 10 weeks...

my cot class was 5 weeks (about 33 total days, i think). they're talking about making it longer to match the bot class (which is 10 weeks, i think), but i don't know what the time table is for that to go into effect.

you don't actually apply for ntp, you're applying for a commission. time from application to notice of acceptance is pretty standard - about a month after the board date, give or take a few weeks. time from acceptance (you can commission any time after that) to cot depends on what slots are available. i had four weeks between getting my acceptance and leaving for cot. some people have 8 months, just depends.

as for specialties, as a new nurse you don't really have options - l&d or med-surg. if you have more than a year icu experience, you may be able to work icu. most icu and ed nurses are 1lts or captains, and lots of majors. i think they even want clinic nurses to have experience, since they do telephone triage. coming through ntp, you'll all be the same afsc - 46n1 - general nurse. some specialties will change that afsc (i'm a 46p3, psych nurse), some just add an identifier (icu nurses get an e enabler identifier, i think). you'll usually get the opportunity to specialize after a few years. flight nursing is very competitive (almost everyone coming in wants to be a flight nurse).

there's a big push for all inpatient nurses and staff to wear scrubs. at dgmc, we wear the uod in to the hospital and change into blue scrubs. we have to change every time we step outside the hospital. most clinic staff don't change.

as for bases, i know a few new nurses that got to go to alaska, and one that went to england for their first duty station. it doesn't hurt to request it. lots of nurses go to travis, lackland, and florida, though they can go almost everywhere. travis is a great base, and we have the biggest af hospital (which isn't huge).

nick7331 · Apr 15, 2012

Thanks for the post LN75. Are you all done with your application now? I'm so ready to finish up the last few weeks of school and take the NCLEX.

LN75 · Apr 15, 2012

Thanks for the post LN75. Are you all done with your application now? I'm so ready to finish up the last few weeks of school and take the NCLEX.

yeah…i think i'm done. all my paperwork has been submitted, i had my interview last month, and my physical and other stuff has been done for awhile. the only thing i might still do is get some letters of recommendation written to include with my package. i read on another forum on this site that some recruiters submit the 1373s and letters of recommendation, to help add strength to the packages. my recruiter didn't offer that, so i need to talk to her and find out why. are you including any letters of recommendation with your stuff or just the 1373s?

hang in there with school…i know how you feel! it's soooooo nice when you're finally done and you can focus on just working. and dont get too down on yourself if you walk out of the NCLEX thinking you totally failed it! :banghead: everybody thinks that, and for most of the hard-working motivated people you end doing ok.

UCAFblue · Apr 15, 2012

LN75, I was wondering the same thing about including letters of recommendation in addition to the 1373s. Like you, I saw on here that some recruiters added that to strengthen the application, but my recruiter did not offer it either. I tried asking him about it and he didn't really seem to understand what I was asking and pretty much made it sound like they won't accept letters of recommendation....so let us know what your recruiter says about it.

LN75 · Apr 15, 2012

LN75, I was wondering the same thing about including letters of recommendation in addition to the 1373s. Like you, I saw on here that some recruiters added that to strengthen the application, but my recruiter did not offer it either. I tried asking him about it and he didn't really seem to understand what I was asking and pretty much made it sound like they won't accept letters of recommendation....so let us know what your recruiter says about it.

will do. it doesn't seem like a fair fight if some recruiters are including letters of rec and others aren't. but then again, if the board members just toss the letters or set them aside or whatever and only look at the official forms, then does it really matter? i suppose at the very least, it can't HURT to include a couple of letters, and if the board members dont wanna read them…fine…if they do, then hey…good for us right!?

nick7331 · Apr 15, 2012

yeah…i think i'm done. all my paperwork has been submitted, i had my interview last month, and my physical and other stuff has been done for awhile. the only thing i might still do is get some letters of recommendation written to include with my package. i read on another forum on this site that some recruiters submit the 1373s and letters of recommendation, to help add strength to the packages. my recruiter didn't offer that, so i need to talk to her and find out why. are you including any letters of recommendation with your stuff or just the 1373s?
hang in there with school…i know how you feel! it's soooooo nice when you're finally done and you can focus on just working. and dont get too down on yourself if you walk out of the NCLEX thinking you totally failed it! everybody thinks that, and for most of the hard-working motivated people you end doing ok.

My recruiter had me give the 1373's to my references and then gave the option of writing a letter in addition to the form. Like you mentioned, not sure if the board looks at it the letter but I'm thinking it definitely won't hurt if they do. I'm still waiting on the Chief Nurse Interview to be scheduled but am thinking that won't happen till the semester ends. I'm definitely looking forward to finishing the NCLEX.

nick7331 · Apr 15, 2012

LN75, I was wondering the same thing about including letters of recommendation in addition to the 1373s. Like you, I saw on here that some recruiters added that to strengthen the application, but my recruiter did not offer it either. I tried asking him about it and he didn't really seem to understand what I was asking and pretty much made it sound like they won't accept letters of recommendation....so let us know what your recruiter says about it.

Not sure if they'll actually look at them but see my comment below about what my recruiter said about an additional letter. It's interesting how much inconsistency there is from recruiter to recruiter. Guess it is all just part of the fun.

CVA311 · Apr 24, 2012

ln75, how was your interview? i go for mine next week and i don't really know what to expect. was it like a typical job interview? thanks

slc2010, good luck with your interview, finishing up school, and the nclex! it really is such a relief when everything is finished. have you gotten your interview scheduled yet?