AF Nursing

[JerseyGirl13]

First, my question is...."Does anyone know if the AF will accept you if you are on antidepressants?"

Also...my hub is enlisted AD AF. When I get my BSN and apply for commission (3 yrs from now), He will have 3 yrs left until he can retire. My concern is that when this happens, Offutt AFB is the only base he has ever been assigned. Never been anywhere else because his careerfield and manning issues have allowed that. The base hospital here is pretty much all clinics, no inpatient care. I've gathered from other boards that if you don't get your base of preference, you aren't locked in yet because you haven't official signed the dotted line. I would like my first assignment to be Offutt, but not sure of the chances of me getting that. The recruiter here said that they would try to keep me here because of him being stationed here, but I don't see how that's true.

Anyone have any info?

[EllTee2B]

From my understanding it depends on how severe your depression is. Things such as suicidal tendencies, or there lack of, will heavily determine your individual case. I believe you will need a waiver, but minor depression is not automatically disqualifying.

[just_cause, BSN, RN]

Great post - depending on your age and thus the cutoff to join the AF and gain retirement benefities.. I mention this as you said your husband is now 6 years from retiring and your are 3 years from graduating with BSN...

I personally would recommend entertaining the option of applying when your husband is 1 year out from retirement, that way you can avoid be seperated from one another as going to a specific location isn't guaranteed and can be stressful... especially if that location does not have a major hospital as that is where new grads / new military nurses end up.

I'd look at the pro's / con's of graduating... gaining 2 years of experience as a nurse and placing packet in 1 year from your husband's retirement date... or whatever time frame you two would feel comfortable being apart from one another should your assignment require a geographic separation.

v/r

[JerseyGirl13]

Thank you both for your replies. EllTee...no, nothing serious...just on the standard issue antidepressants they give to military wives (lol). Just_cause...that would probably be the wise thing for me to do, but I'm very impatient and I have been waiting A LONG time to even get to school and just want to get back in already. Oh yeah, I am prior service...only did 1 yr active duty and the rest was inactive. I thought I read on other posts that unless you request or have experience in a certain unit (ICU, CCU, OR, ER), they can and have sent others to the "super clinics". There are only a few fully functioning AF hospitals in America anymore, the rest are clinics.