U.S. Public Health Service questions

Published Jan 9, 2006

133 Posts

Hello everyone. I have a few questions that I would like to have answered if you can help please.

1. Can you join the pub health service and stay at same duty station or do you have to move around?

2. Is there any flexibility in choosing duty stations?

3. I read on their website that you come in at rank of O-2 and can advance to O-3. However, it takes almost an act of God to advance to O-4 and above. Does anyone have any pointers on how to get advanced past O-3?

4. What are the chances that they will pay for my MSN education while on active duty?

5. What are overall likes and dislike about this service?

6. Are there any types of duty stations (Indian reservation, prison system, CDC, etc) that you would jump through hoops to work for or some you avoid like the plague? Why?

Thank you so much for answering whatever you can. I have six yrs active duty service and I am thinking of which branch of service I can go in to finish out my retirement when I become a nurse.