(AFROTC) Questions about Air Force Nursing

[kdainx]

I'm a pre-nursing major at my college and I'm about to begin my sophomore year. I've really been thinking about AFROTC but it's really hard for me to make the choice without all the facts. I just have a couple of questions and even if you can only answer one, it would be much appreciated.

1) I'll be applying to nursing school after this upcoming semester. Will AFROTC be too hard to balance with everything else? I'd like to think I'm someone that can manage my time (4.0 each semester so far) but I've never done anything like this.

2) I've made my schedule already for the upcoming year and I'm not scheduled to talk to the AFROTC rep at my crosstown school for another month literally days before the semester begins. I have no issue moving my schedule around to fit AFROTC classes, but where do I find out when those classes are so I'm not switching my classes last minute

3) I was creeping around on these forums and I came across a post saying that even though I'll have a degree in Nursing they may not make me a nurse they'll just make me what they need. Is that true? If it is, does that happen often?

4) I keep hearing about needing to get a "rated slot" at field training? What is that all about and will I need one?

5) I don't care what type of nurse I am or where I go that much, I just want to serve my country as a nurse, but do I get a choice where I end up when I'm active duty?

6) Am I crazy or is it possible to balance AFROTC, Nursing School, and a part-time job? I had to ask, I have bills to pay haha

Thanks in advance!

[jfratian, DNP, RN, CRNA]

I direct commissioned so I know nothing about ROTC. It's all 2nd hand from coworkers that have.

Every AF ROTC nursing student I've ever heard of got active duty and was commissioned as a nurse. I don't know how other branches do it, but the AF doesn't have a ton of Nursing ROTC students. We still direct commission a fair number of new grads who didn't do ROTC. That should tell you something right there. I can tell you from second hand accounts that it is extremely difficult, but doable. I didn't do it myself though.

[carolinapooh, BSN, RN]

I know three RNs that commissioned via ROTC. I met all three of them at Wilford Hall/SAMMC. (I've been on active duty for seven years as an Air Force RN.)

You will NOT be rated. Rated slots are for pilots and what they used to call navigators. That I do know. :) And if you are "hired" for ROTC as an RN, you will be an RN when you are commissioned. You're being hired for that job and for that purpose. It's not like what we call the "line side" of the Air Force (everyone who's not affiliated with medical, the Chaplain Corps, or JAG), where the students there are competing for pilot and rated slots and then those who aren't chosen are selected for other positions.

The assignment selection process works pretty much the same for ROTC RNs as for direct commission RNs: you give the Air Force your top choices and they will attempt to place you at one of them. However, if you come in with no RN experience, you'll go to NTP at an Air Force medical center; I'm not 100% sure where they are these days, but I do know two of them are Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio and San Antonio Military Medical Center at Ft Sam Houston, TX. If you have a choice in the matter, I'd personally ask for SAMMC; it's a joint environment (so you see how that works) and it's a Level 1 Trauma Center. Aerovac patients come there all the time from Afghanistan and the military burn center is there, as well as what I believe is the military's largest NICU and the DOD's only allogeneic bone marrow transplant center (where I worked for four years). You can see a LOT of different things there that you really won't see anywhere else.

I also think that in ROTC you will fill out what we call your "Dream Sheet" with six US mainland (CONUS - CONtinental US) choices and six overseas (OCONUS - Outside the CONtinental US, to include Alaska and Hawaii) choices. Fill each side of that list and don't give the USAF any thought that you're open to going ANYWHERE in the world (unless you don't care - and that's also ok!). With that said, they CAN still send you where they want, but if you completely fill the sheet out, you will know you did your darnedest to prevent that. Never leave them an open door (even if you know they can open it for you - they just non-volunteered me to Korea for a year, but that's how it works sometimes). Take as much control over your options as you have.

If you've talked to ROTC at this point, please share what you learned; there are likely others on the board who could benefit. :)