Did You Know?
allnurses is the largest community for nurses on the web. We now have over 388,160 members! Join today to network with other nurses, laugh, share, and much more.
| No. 10 | 
Dec 23, 2008, 09:35 AM
Updated
Dec 23, 2008 at 09:41 AM by armyicurn
 Re: new Army Nurse going Landstuhl, Germany Originally Posted by lionstudent  Armyicurn,
I am a senior nursing student and considering the Army (I'm prior service) for ICU experience...Can u give me a little insight on the pace of the Critical Care Course after completion of 1 to 1.5 yr of Med/Surg?...Also, what's a normal ICU shift like @ LMRC, and are there opportunities for working PRN's @ area hospitals once you return stateside? Any info would extremely helpful!
What is your ultimate goal? CRNA? The Critical Care Course is what you make out of it. Where do you want to go for it? BAMC, Walter Reed or Madigan? You must do ECCO online for phase one and this will start to paint the picture about ICU stuff. I will recomend you try to float or just drop by and talk to the Head Nurse in the ICU if they can allow you to shadow and RN during their shift to get and idea of what is like.
Depending on where you decide to go for the course, it can be a pleasant experience or it can be pure hell. Every course director is different and some of them take the course in a way that they can make it tough for you or they can make it harder than nursing school. Do you like care plans? You will have to give two oral reports. The first one is on one system that is failing on your patient and the other one is on 3 systems that are failing on another pt. The oral exam can last from 1.5 to 3 hrs depending on how you come accross to the director. If you make it, then the army will give you your identifier as a critical care nurse.
Shifts in the ICU are 12 hours minimum. I say minimum because some places are not fully staffed and you must depend on some agency nurse (stateside only) to come in. They can be late or can be early. My shifts are by far the best I have ever had in the army. I work 12 hrs on days and I work a set schedule which allows me to plan what I want to do on my days off. Every other weekend I am off. Basically I work only 15 days a month. Keep in mind that this is only here at LRMC. We are fully staffed with 11-13 RNs plus a charge RN. We do get slammed when we get pts from the sandbox. One day we can have all 12 beds empty and in a matter of hours we can have 18 patients taking every available bag of IV fluids and gtts. Burns, trauma, neuro, cardiac, MORF, organ donation, ARDS. You name it.
You can do PRN up to 16 hrs besides your own duty with the army. They track this closely and you must get the paperwork filled out prior to working outside the military arena.
Good luck.
 | | Advertisement Sponsored Links | | | | No. 11 |
Dec 23, 2008, 01:17 PM
Re: new Army Nurse going Landstuhl, Germany
Congrats on getting Landstuhl! I'm in AROTC as well but I don't graduate till next December (doing LDAC and NSTP this next summer). I'm hoping to get Landstuhl as my first duty station, but from what I've heard it's pretty difficult to get! I'm not gonna lie and say that I'm not a little bit jealous ha ha. Someone from my college who graduated in August got Landstuhl as well--she's doing the Goldbar thing for a few months beforehand.
All I've heard are positive things so far from a few people that were stationed there. Good luck!
-Mike
| | No. 12 |
Dec 23, 2008, 03:04 PM
Re: new Army Nurse going Landstuhl, Germany
hey Mike. Good luck with LDAC and NSTP. I did mine last summer and well...hope it doesn't rain in LDAC. But I loved the people in my squad and you'll get to really know them well. Where are you going for NSTP? I went to Fort Bragg, NC and had a blast there. It wasn't the best place around but the other cadets were pretty cool and we had an awesome time. And WAMC was great. All the nurses there were sweet and you learn so much! Try and take every opportunity to do something that you want b/c you're so limited in nursing school. But don't lose hope on Landstuhl! I think the Army really tries to give you your top choice! Good luck!!
| | No. 13 |
Dec 23, 2008, 08:24 PM
Re: new Army Nurse going Landstuhl, Germany Originally Posted by armyicurn What is your ultimate goal? CRNA? The Critical Care Course is what you make out of it. Where do you want to go for it? BAMC, Walter Reed or Madigan? You must do ECCO online for phase one and this will start to paint the picture about ICU stuff. I will recomend you try to float or just drop by and talk to the Head Nurse in the ICU if they can allow you to shadow and RN during their shift to get and idea of what is like.
Depending on where you decide to go for the course, it can be a pleasant experience or it can be pure hell. Every course director is different and some of them take the course in a way that they can make it tough for you or they can make it harder than nursing school. Do you like care plans? You will have to give two oral reports. The first one is on one system that is failing on your patient and the other one is on 3 systems that are failing on another pt. The oral exam can last from 1.5 to 3 hrs depending on how you come accross to the director. If you make it, then the army will give you your identifier as a critical care nurse.
Shifts in the ICU are 12 hours minimum. I say minimum because some places are not fully staffed and you must depend on some agency nurse (stateside only) to come in. They can be late or can be early. My shifts are by far the best I have ever had in the army. I work 12 hrs on days and I work a set schedule which allows me to plan what I want to do on my days off. Every other weekend I am off. Basically I work only 15 days a month. Keep in mind that this is only here at LRMC. We are fully staffed with 11-13 RNs plus a charge RN. We do get slammed when we get pts from the sandbox. One day we can have all 12 beds empty and in a matter of hours we can have 18 patients taking every available bag of IV fluids and gtts. Burns, trauma, neuro, cardiac, MORF, organ donation, ARDS. You name it.
You can do PRN up to 16 hrs besides your own duty with the army. They track this closely and you must get the paperwork filled out prior to working outside the military arena.
Good luck.
Armyicurn,
Thanks for the info...Yeah, my ultimate goal is CRNA...I would like to go to BAMC in San Antone, or Madigan @ FTLWA...Do u have any inside info on either? Where did U complete your Critical Care course? How would u rate either one on a scale of 1 to 10? Your insight was extremely helpful...Again, thanks tremedously for your input!
| | No. 14 |
Dec 23, 2008, 11:52 PM
Re: new Army Nurse going Landstuhl, Germany Originally Posted by Gennaver Hello,
You are the first new graduate new nurse, new Army officer that I've heard of that got an overseas assignment right out of school. Congratulations. I commissioned in along two ROTC nurses who did an internship in Germany and from what I heard they loved it.
Sorry that I have no information for you, can you ask someone through your ROTC if they can connect you with nurses already there for communication, advice or help?
Have you received your welcome packet from your sponsor yet? Likely that will be either prior to or right after OBLC...however, depending on where you go, sometimes people's sponsors are not even informed that they are sponsoring someone until the person is already going strong!
Good luck
Gen
I just finished OBLC and at least 3 new grads got assigned to Landstuhl.....there were probably more.....
c.
| | No. 15 |
Dec 24, 2008, 02:01 AM
Re: new Army Nurse going Landstuhl, Germany
Lionstudent,
What "inside" info are you looking for? I went to Madigan because I wanted the army to "pay me" for a vacation. I wanted to travel that part of the country and that is what I did when I was not in class. Rating BAMC and Madigan's programs is something that I will not do here. Like I said above, every director runs their program a bit different but follow the guidelines set by the army and the AACN. They can not take away from it, but can add more to it depending on the class's needs and weaknesses. I've been told by other colleagues that BAMC and Walter Reed have some unique ways to run the course. That is all I am going to say about them. Bottom line, the course is what you make out of it. If you want to fail, you can do it with no help from the army. The course will only give you a picture of what to expect in an ICU setting, but you still have lots to learn when you get to your final duty station. Some students go to the course with never stepping into and ICU and do fine, but some have a rough start, but do fine as lone as they apply themselves.
What was your prior service job?
All the best.
| | No. 16 |
Dec 24, 2008, 10:18 PM
Re: new Army Nurse going Landstuhl, Germany
Are there things to do around city? Yes there are tons of things to do in the cities places to go. I wasn't at Landstuhl but i had great fun. There are castles and tons of entertainment that's cheap. Get your traveling passport which is different before your Military passport. How's the weather? It's hella cold. I know there will be a lot of injured soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan so maybe a lot of critical care cases. Was it stressful? it can be stressful at every military facility depending on what area you work in. Did you feel lost? sort of lost at first but people help you. Did people help you? Are the native people there friendly? yes, very as long as you try to learn their language and follow their rules. do they speak English? for the most part. Do I have to learn how to speak German or is English good enough? You don't have to but it's highly recomendded. Is housing easily available and is it affordable? How about the cost of living there? I know the Euro is more than the American dollar. Will I have enough time to travel through Europe while working as an Army nurse?Yeppers How about a car? you should get one when you get there andd make sure it's American Speced Do I need to buy a car? you should a little off topic, but are Mercedes or BMW's cheaper there? yes, it's a great thing too./ Is there anything else that I should know? have fun, relax, and welcome to the military. You are going to have a ton of new experiences adn special relationships and bonds that no civilian will ever understand. Anything that I need to steer clear of? the list of places they tell you not to go is a good start. Shopping too much, and all the guys who want to marry you the day after they meet you.
| | No. 17 |
Dec 29, 2008, 06:24 PM
Re: new Army Nurse going Landstuhl, Germany
Hi!
I'm new on this forum, I saw your post on a Landstuhl assignment and figured I would offer my input.
I should finish my degree (ASN) in June and was planning on applying for a DoD or DAC job in Landstuhl. I was assigned there in the early 80s and other then the separation from my wife I loved it. That part of Germany is a very easy/relaxed place for an American to live.
Here is my input on some things that might make your transition a bit more smooth.
1. Learn some basic German, just some simple phrases, greetings and simple courtesy. German Before You Know It is a free down load and easy to use program. It will not teach you a lot but it will get you started. Yes the Germans for the most part do speak English, but only if you make a small attempt to speak German.
2.Landstuhl is a small town/stadt. About 9000 people living there, if you google Landstuhl, and look at pictures of the town, the pictures are pretty much the whole town. The military compound/kaserne, is small shouldn't be much over 2000 people assigned there including the hospital and all support units.
3.Off Post housing and car costs can be found here http://www.kaiserslauternamerican.com/ and you can also try EBay.
4. Things to do... more then you can count. Landstuhl sits on the edge of the Naturpark Pfalzer Wald lots of fuss wegs or walking trails, shopping in KTown or Kaiserslautern, International Travel, you are not to far from France.
Winter skiing the Alps are not that far, well with in driving distance, and the government has recreational facilities in Garmisch, south of Munich in the German Alps. There are fests all over the country, all you have to do is decide on what you are interested in. The DDB or Bahn (train system) use to have guided tours for just a few euros,marks at the time. Fasching or the German version of Mardi Gras. Volksmarching, weekend walking pay a few euros walk 10K and get a medal or trophy lots of fun.
I hope this helps some, If you have any more questions I'll see if I can dig deep in the old memory and try and answer.
Steve
| | No. 18 |
Jan 27, 2009, 05:13 PM
Re: new Army Nurse going Landstuhl, Germany
Hi, I'm a civillian, but my husband is going to be stationed in that area. I've heard that it is extremely difficult for civillian nurses to get DOD jobs there. Does anyone know if thats true? ( I currently work for the VA)
| | No. 19 |
Jul 31, 2009, 08:33 PM
Re: new Army Nurse going Landstuhl, Germany
Hmm I just found this thread and I am wondering if anyone is scheduled to go to Landstuhl in January 2010. I am scheduled for that day, but might go two weeks early since I am German and I would be able to visit with my family for Christmas. I will::crosses her fingers::soon be an ARMY Nurse myself, after passing Nclex. OBLC in October. Would be great to find some others here going the same route and timeline.
|
| 333 members
2,784 guests 3,117
| 1 | | | 12 | | | 2 | | | 9 | | | 17 | | | 11 | | | 14 | | | 16 | | | 37 | | | 14 | | | 20 | | | 23 | | | 19 | | | 24 | | | 10 | |
|
Nursing News