ADN in BSN program considering military nursing

[snickersbobo]

I am an ADN with one year of clinical experience and one year of non-clinical experience (but still working as an RN--technically). I am in an RN to BSN program and will graduate 4/12, and I am interested in Army, Navy, or Air Force once I get my BSN so I can enter as an officer. My question is, with a year until I get my BSN, what should I be doing now? I have read the posts on here that say it is a long process. What kind of grades do I need to get in my BSN program? I have jotted down the phone numbers for the officer or healthcare recruiters in each branch, but have not called yet. Also, I've heard that the nurse corps are full... wondering if that's true? Any info would be helpful, thanks!

[laneyg]

I wouldn't say the Nurse Corps are full for any specific branch, but it's not easy to get in contact with a recruiter and get the process going. Grades I believe are required to be above a 3.0 and obviously the higher GPA the stronger your application is. The best thing to do is attempt to contact recruiters and get information from them and see what happens. Good luck :)

[just_cause, BSN, RN]

Read this forum for general info, review army / navy / af websites to gain rough idea of requirements, areas of specialty, and idea of which branch's mission you might like... start jotting notes.. then relook this forum - review primary medical hospitals as that is likely first duty station and where a high % of nurses are located.. then post specific questions start preparing a timeline of when to start making contact etc... oh.. primary focus is BSN until then

welcome to the forum.

[vekrause]

Not sure about the other branches, but you might want to talk to an Army Reserve recruiter. The STRAP program will give you a stipend ($2K) a month to go to school. Your only requirement will be to finish your BSN, with your military obligation starting after graduation. One downfall is you owe 2-1 on payback, but if you only take 1 year of STRAP, you'll owe two, and your obligation is probably for 3 anyways. If you want AD, you will get locked into the Reserves until you pay back your time.

Either way, a recruiter is your best bet to answer most questions.