Military Nursing Questions Answered

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  • Specializes in Critical Care Emergency Military Nursing.

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Dmendoza

50 Posts

GuelnRn- hows everything going? Ive been reading your posts..im from the Los Angeles area..halfway thru my kit..how was your experience with the interview? I was told the boards should meet oct2014...

BANKERPEBZ

1 Post

My daughter is a rising HS senior. She is interested in being a nurse in the Navy after college. What is the difference between Navy ROTC and taking nursing classes, or the nurse candidate program? Are they the same? Any advice?

Specializes in Adult Critical Care.

Navy/AF/Army ROTC is the college training program for general officership. All career fields do the same thing. It has nothing to do with nursing. You are pretty much a normal college student who has extra obligations for the military (PT, leadership classes, etc). There are scholarship and non-scholarship ROTC students; make sure she applies for the scholarship. If you take the scholarship and don't finish ROTC, then you have to pay the money back.

Once you graduate, you go to an abbreviated training course (again for general officership training) that differs by branch (4 weeks for the Air Force). Then, you go to training for new nurses for about 3 months (may differ by branch). Finally, you show up at your assigned unit.

I don't know what the Navy calls its programs, but the nurse candidate program sounds like a new grad direct commissioning program. Essentially, she would graduate with her BSN first. Then she would apply for a direct commission during her last year of college. This is much more competitive than ROTC, and the services use it to fill in any open ROTC spots left-over. IE there may not be any spot available. The rules are changing all the time, and they may or may not have signing bonus and/or loan repayment when she graduates with her BSN. ROTC is the only sure-fire way to get her school paid for, because of all the budget trimming going on right now. The benefit to direct commission is that you don't have to do the ROTC nonsense for 4 years.

504 medic

74 Posts

The benefit to direct commission is that you don't have to do the ROTC nonsense for 4 years.

The benefit, other than the guaranteed commissioning/guaranteed tuition, is that you will enter the Army with 2 years time in service when calculating your pay, so you will make more money than the person who direct commissioned on the same day you left ROTC.

Plus, correct me if I'm wrong, but if you are on ROTC orders and you get injured/sick, I believe you will be compensated/taken care of...while going it alone and direct commissioning later means all that come out of pocket.

Specializes in Adult Critical Care.

Nonsense is too strong a word, because you a lot of the professional military education you continually do seems to come much easier to ROTC grads. I just think the couple hundred extra bucks per month isn't worth it on its own. The sign-on bonuses you may get for direct commission are far more lucrative overall (although they may not exist a few years down the line).

A lot of kids are on their parent's insurance plans till 26 so that may be a wash.

UtaMaverick: It's been a while since I had to do any of this but I will do my best. First of all you will negotiate your orders before you graduate. Actually you should be doing this soon, within the next month or so. After graduation you will need to take and pass the nclex. You don't want to be that nurse at officer development school (ODS) that didn't pass the first time. You should have your orders to RI before you take your nclex, but this may vary. Sometime after the nclex you fly to RI for 5 weeks of "officer training" or ODS. If you're married then your spouse will be negotiating the move to your duty station while you are at ODS. (some of this may vary depending on how soon you go to RI after the nclex.)

It seems to me that this is still confusing; I will explain what we did in hope of clarifying things a little.

I negotiated orders in feb or march. I graduated in may, passed in june. ODS in mid july. My wife and I house hunted before I left to RI in june. While I was in RI, my wife worked with the moving office to get us moved from A to B. After ODS I flew to my new duty station. (I think that the navy will only fly you from ODS to your new duty station, not back to your home of record location) Once I got to my duty station I could have taken some leave or immediately get to work/orientation. Let me know if you have more questions or need further clarification.

Hi Navyman7. I am graduating in late April, figured I would take the NCLEX in May sometime, and planning a wedding for June. There is a 14 JUN ODS session, and a 19 JUL ODS session. Do they tell you which session you have to go to? Do you know if they are reasonable in letting you pick one or there other (within a specific time...like not taking 6 mo between NCLEX and ODS)? I'm hesitant to plan for a date later than 14 JUN in case I get assigned to go to that session. Thoughts? Thanks

Nurse shelly

2 Posts

Hi, I am an LPN, currently enrolled in an ADN program and will be starting BSN next fall. I am considering NCP or Direct Commission after graduation. I wanted to know which is the better option. How hard is it to get in? I have GS experience with VA and DOD (Navy) with references from both. I hold a 3.9 gpa in school. Also, my spouse is enlisted USN and up for shore rotation in a couple of years.I wanted to know how difficult it would be for us to station together. Also, do you have children? I want to know how difficult it would be to have children if I get in. Any guidance would be great

Specializes in Adult Critical Care.

NCP is a new grad direct commissioning program for the Navy; the Air Force calls their program NTP. Hopefully, you'll have a few years of RN experience and can avoid both by the time you have your BSN. Those programs are very competitive, like any new grad commissioning program right now.

I say avoid them because new grads typically start in med/surg or OB and are stuck there for 2-3 years. Switching specialties entails a lengthy application process, TDY training program, and several extra years of service commitment. In the Air Force, new grads have this nurse residency program for 12 months after they finish 12 weeks of basic nursing skills training at NTP (basically a series of extra meetings and take-home projects). If you could obtain a few years of experience in the civilian sector in the specialty of your choice, then you could bypass all the new grad crap.

Nurse shelly

2 Posts

Thanks for the response! So I should wait until I have a few years experience and then apply for direct commission? I wasn't sure which was more difficult to obtain (new grad or experienced) I keep reading about long wait lists for experienced nurses. Will they consider my RN experience from the time I am licensed ( after the ADN) or from the time BSN is obtained? I had not considered the AF, mainly because my husband is Navy and I figured different branches would make co-location that much more challenging. Thanks for your help

Specializes in Adult Critical Care.

There are long waits for everybody in every branch right now. I have heard that all branches don't count ADN RN time for constructive credit, but I don't know for sure. I know that the Air Force definitely gives you half of your civilian RN experience (ADN+BSN combined) as time in grade. If you were a civilian nurse for 2 years, you would promote to O-2 in just 1 year (instead of the usual 2 years); if you had 4 years, you'd enter as an O-2.

I can't answer the spouse thing.

I don't have any hard evidence to support this theory, but my gut tells me experience will only help you. I don't think the army is taking any direct commission new grads right now.

J-Diddy

24 Posts

I actually had some questions but felt some trepidation about asking as most of the respondents are speaking a different language. Ill try to make this short.

After 5 years of nursing I spoke to a recruiter about joining. He realized that I already had my RN and eventually connected me with an AMEDD recruiter who after talking to me awhile basically said I had to get my BSN. I did, graduated in May, and after some runaround finally got in touch with another representative who said that now I am too old. Before I graduated the cutoff was 40 something but now its 30 something (I'm 37). I figured oh well, but its still bugging me. Perhaps I am too old and it wasn't meant to be but I don't see the harm in exploring all my options. I transferred to the unit so now I have that experience as well. Would they really discount an experienced provider due to age? I have at least another 20 years of work in me, probably more. I fully intend on getting my Master's. I was originally looking at the Army but I would consider another branch.

You have to be commissioned by 42.

vinstafa

117 Posts

Specializes in Critical Care.

Does anyone have any information about staff parking at Walter Reed?

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