New nursing going USAF

[penasco man]

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.

[wtbcrna, MSN, DNP, CRNA]

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

There are tri and dual service hospital (ie Landstuhl) were we all work together, but there is not that many of them that I am personally know of. Specialized physicians will probably be the ones that work with different branches the most (for example my daughter's developmentalist works all over the DC/Virgina area).

Your friend probably used tution assistance it pays for 100% of tution and fees up to a set max per year ( I forget the max now), but the only catch is that you agree to serve 2 more years of on AD from the time the last class ends. The time runs consecutively, so if you use it early in your committment it is a really good deal. Also, you can opt to use your VA educational benefits after either the 1st or 2nd year of AD and avoid any incurment of further AD time.

One other thing to know about NPs...there is only certain NPs that are utilized by the AF. The ones that I know that are utilized are: FNP, PNP, & WHNP.