New nursing going USAF

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I am in the process of getting my packet together and sending it to my recruiter to get into the USAF Nurse Corps and I was wondering what life was like after you get through NTP. I'm looking at furthering my college education once at my first duty station and was wondering if the AF has a habit of sending the nurses out on TDY's and the such your first two or three years of enlistment, or do they leave you alone and let you build up experience. I've been the USAF Air National Guard for 11 years and I know that it is different. My unit was pretty cool in that they knew that I was going through Nusing School so they held off on sending me anywhere. Just curious as I am in the education mode and don't want to find my self three years down the road not having pursued any more schooling after NS. Thanks for your time.

Specializes in Anesthesia.
Hello all,

This thread was of interest to me because I am in the process of applying to become an Air Force nurse. I have two years experience as a civilian nurse and I will be entering with an MSN (I have a BS in another field and took the MSN route a quick transition into nursing). My specialty is OB/GYN and am currently working in a large trauma hospital. I am hoping that I will get my first choice of duty stations (Wilford Hall) but I'm curious, what other hospitals might be reasonable requests? Specifically I'm interested in hospitals that might have more high-risk OB patients, if such an assignment even exists. I would certainly appreciate any suggestions. Any insight/suggestions/words of wisdom associated with AF nursing would also be appreciated!

I am not an OB person, but any AF hospital that has a NICU should have high/higher risk OB. I know Wilford Hall has a NICU, Keesler has a NICU but is still building back up after Hurricaine Katrina, and you might consider Landstuhl in Germany, also.

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Specializes in L&D, mother/baby, antepartum.

Thanks wtbcrna. If I am new to the Air Force would they consider sending me overseas as a first or second assignment? I would have thought (possibly wrongly) that there would be lots of people that would want to be stationed overseas.

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Specializes in Anesthesia.
Thanks wtbcrna. If I am new to the Air Force would they consider sending me overseas as a first or second assignment? I would have thought (possibly wrongly) that there would be lots of people that would want to be stationed overseas.

There is a good chance that you can get your choice of assignments on initial entry. The big thing is you have to be adamant about what you want. Don't sign the contract unless you get what you want. This will probably be the only time during your career that you will get this much say so...

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Specializes in L&D, mother/baby, antepartum.
I am not an OB person, but any AF hospital that has a NICU should have high/higher risk OB. I know Wilford Hall has a NICU, Keesler has a NICU but is still building back up after Hurricaine Katrina, and you might consider Landstuhl in Germany, also.

wtbcrna,

In addition to hospital assignments, do RNs get assigned to clinics? I've read that most of those positions are contracted to civilians. As an AF RN should I expect to be primarily assigned to hospitals? I have a small list of AF hospitals but there are only 11 listed. Are there really only 11 stateside hospitals??

Thanks!

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Specializes in Anesthesia.
wtbcrna,

In addition to hospital assignments, do RNs get assigned to clinics? I've read that most of those positions are contracted to civilians. As an AF RN should I expect to be primarily assigned to hospitals? I have a small list of AF hospitals but there are only 11 listed. Are there really only 11 stateside hospitals??

Thanks!

Active duty nurses do work in the clinics. The percentage that are AD vs. civilian depends on the base.

I am not sure how many AF hospitals are stateside.....The ones I remember are:

Wilford Hall

Wright Pat

Keesler

Eglin

Travis

Nellis

I think I am forgeting one or two, but when looking at AF hospitals make sure that you are looking at an up to date list....ie. Sheppard no longer has a hospital, but you might still see it listed as one.

What hospitals do you have on your list?

Hope this helps a little..

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Specializes in L&D, mother/baby, antepartum.
Active duty nurses do work in the clinics. The percentage that are AD vs. civilian depends on the base.

I am not sure how many AF hospitals are stateside.....The ones I remember are:

Wilford Hall

Wright Pat

Keesler

Eglin

Travis

Nellis

I think I am forgeting one or two, but when looking at AF hospitals make sure that you are looking at an up to date list....ie. Sheppard no longer has a hospital, but you might still see it listed as one.

What hospitals do you have on your list?

Hope this helps a little..

Helps quite a bit. At this point I'm still pondering my number 2 and 3 choices; number 1 is Wilford Hall and I'm told it shouldn't really be an issue. More than anything I'm just thinking about future opportunities, although as I well know things could change drastically before I'm ever finished with my first assignment.

I may have mentioned before that my specialty is OB/GYN. I have an MSN but I'm still working on the experience. Do you know of any nurses who have entered the AF with an MSN? Mine is is Maternal-Child Health CNS and I'd like to be able to put it to use in the next five years or so. My only fear is that I will enter the AF only to be utilized as a staff nurse for longer than I would in civilian nursing. To be honest, that is my only fear of joining. Any thoughts/observations on your part?

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Specializes in Anesthesia.
Helps quite a bit. At this point I'm still pondering my number 2 and 3 choices; number 1 is Wilford Hall and I'm told it shouldn't really be an issue. More than anything I'm just thinking about future opportunities, although as I well know things could change drastically before I'm ever finished with my first assignment.

I may have mentioned before that my specialty is OB/GYN. I have an MSN but I'm still working on the experience. Do you know of any nurses who have entered the AF with an MSN? Mine is is Maternal-Child Health CNS and I'd like to be able to put it to use in the next five years or so. My only fear is that I will enter the AF only to be utilized as a staff nurse for longer than I would in civilian nursing. To be honest, that is my only fear of joining. Any thoughts/observations on your part?

I think for you Wilford Hall would be a good choice, or possibly Keesler.

To be perfectly honest the AF is way behind the times on proper utilization of CNSs.

How do feel about getting your NP? The AF does tend to utilize/understand the NP role a little better. Overall, I think after your adjustment you will really enjoy the AF.

Also, have you taken a look at USPHS.

Good Luck!

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Specializes in L&D, mother/baby, antepartum.
I think for you Wilford Hall would be a good choice, or possibly Keesler.

To be perfectly honest the AF is way behind the times on proper utilization of CNSs.

How do feel about getting your NP? The AF does tend to utilize/understand the NP role a little better. Overall, I think after your adjustment you will really enjoy the AF.

Also, have you taken a look at USPHS.

Good Luck!

I had read your suggestions re: the USPHS in other threads so I did look into it. There are many positions that were of interest to me, but they didn't seem consistent with my goals right now. As for your NP suggestion, absolutely, I would love to get my NP. The fact that I already have an MSN means that I would really only have a year of NP schooling/clinical to be able to graduate and practice. I wonder if this would work in my favor when the time came for me to apply for that opportunity?? Right now I am eager to gain more clinical experience and then see where my career leads me! If they decide to utilize me as a CNS at some point--great. If not, then I may go the NP route. By the way, do you have to hold a certain rank before they will consider sending you to school? What are some of the best ways to advance in rank?

I appreciate all of your input...it is very helpful!

Oh, and when I visited my recruiter this week she gave me a long list of hospitals that utilize OB nurses. I was surprised to see so many.

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Specializes in Anesthesia.
I had read your suggestions re: the USPHS in other threads so I did look into it. There are many positions that were of interest to me, but they didn't seem consistent with my goals right now. As for your NP suggestion, absolutely, I would love to get my NP. The fact that I already have an MSN means that I would really only have a year of NP schooling/clinical to be able to graduate and practice. I wonder if this would work in my favor when the time came for me to apply for that opportunity?? Right now I am eager to gain more clinical experience and then see where my career leads me! If they decide to utilize me as a CNS at some point--great. If not, then I may go the NP route. By the way, do you have to hold a certain rank before they will consider sending you to school? What are some of the best ways to advance in rank?

I appreciate all of your input...it is very helpful!

Oh, and when I visited my recruiter this week she gave me a long list of hospitals that utilize OB nurses. I was surprised to see so many.

If you want to PM me your email address (I can't post it, because of the size) I will send this years call for canidates that will explain the requirements for going to graduate nursing school while on AD. The best option might be to use tutition assistance and get your NP on your own, if that is what you decide to do.

Also, would you send me the list that the recruiter gave you for OB nurses? I have a sneaking suspicion something is very strange/overinflated with that list. Unless, they are including all the bases with OB/Gyn clinics and not just the hospitals with OB wards.

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Specializes in L&D, mother/baby, antepartum.
Also, would you send me the list that the recruiter gave you for OB nurses? I have a sneaking suspicion something is very strange/overinflated with that list. Unless, they are including all the bases with OB/Gyn clinics and not just the hospitals with OB wards.

Here's the list that I received. There is actually more to it than this because it lists all hospitals/clinics and all specialties. I'd be happy to scan it and send it to you as a pdf if you'd like to see the whole thing. For now, here is the OB list:

AFA Peterson, CO; Andrews MD; Elgin, FL; Keesler, MS; Lackland , TX; Langley, VA; Luke, AZ; Mt. Home, ID; Nellis, NV; Offutt, NE; Scott, IL; Travis, CA; Wright Patterson, OH

Mind you, they did not tell me that all of these locations have high-risk (something I'm interested in), they just show that OB/L&D nurses are utilized in these locations. I hope that haven't "inflated" this list...that would not sit well.

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Specializes in Anesthesia.
Here's the list that I received. There is actually more to it than this because it lists all hospitals/clinics and all specialties. I'd be happy to scan it and send it to you as a pdf if you'd like to see the whole thing. For now, here is the OB list:

AFA Peterson, CO; Andrews MD; Elgin, FL; Keesler, MS; Lackland , TX; Langley, VA; Luke, AZ; Mt. Home, ID; Nellis, NV; Offutt, NE; Scott, IL; Travis, CA; Wright Patterson, OH

Mind you, they did not tell me that all of these locations have high-risk (something I'm interested in), they just show that OB/L&D nurses are utilized in these locations. I hope that haven't "inflated" this list...that would not sit well.

From what I could find some of those are just clinics even a couple that do still have hospitals.

Don't get the wrong idea the AF healthcare recruiters are generally excellent at their job, but most of them come from the line side and other than what they are taught they trully don't know anything about the medical side of the AF.

I think for what you want Wilford Hall, Keesler, and Wright Patt are the best choices. Keesler is just in the rebuilding phases, but it can be a good to time to go in and help it grow. Eventually Wilford Hall is going down to just clinics and merging the hospital with Ft Sam Houston/BAMC.

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Unless things have changed Air Force Nurses do work at Army hospitals and I think vise versa. I don't know how it works exactly as far as requesting jobs there.

Also I want to add that I had a friend who was on AD Air Force with her BSN and the Air Force paid for her to get her NP while on AD. I don't remember exactly her NP but I believe it was for the NICU. Anyways,,,needs of the Air Force come first,,,, after she got it there was no job for her. So,,, she was doing case management stuff. I have lost contact with her. She may have eventually gotten to be an NP, I don't know.

Good Luck,

Pam

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