Air Force Nurse Corps

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Specializes in Med/Surg, APU/PACU, Peds, Flight.

I will be graduating in May 2010 with my BSN. My current plan is to join the Air Force once I am done with school. I have spoken briefly to a recruiter but I am sure I could call him and ask him these questions but getting information from fellow nurses seems like a good idea. My main question is when do I need to like seriously commit to the Air Force? Do you do the training and all that jazz post graduation? I do not want to stop my schooling when I only have a year left. Any and all information is greatly apprecited!

Thank You!!!

Sarah : )

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hey, i'm actually doing the exact same thing you're talking about, same graduation and everything. i'm not sure when you make your actualy commitment, but they make their decision in october/november, and tell you if you're in and where you're going. then after graduation, you take the nclex, and go to ots in august for a month. after that, you do around 10 weeks new grad orientation at (hopefully) the base and hospital you're going to be working at.

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Hey, I'm also graduating in May 2010 with my BSN and am probably going into the Air Force. My recruiter said to give him a call in May to get the paperwork and everything going, and the nursing boards are in October. If you start things earlier than May the paperwork will expire prior to the boards. The recruiter will help get your packet prepared, and this is what goes before the board. Then after you get chosen, things start moving quickly. We would go to a 10 week school that's like a big clinical/prceptorship and then we go to the class that will teach us the air force stuff ( I think this is 4-5 weeks long). Then we'd go to our assigned base. Hope this helps and good luck with everything. We're almost done!!!

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Nursing boards for the USAF are held monthly, not just in October. You're notified that you're selected by a board, they give you a COT (Commissioned Officer Training) date and at that point you commit to the class date they give you (which, like everything else about the military, is subject to change). Once you're commissioned (and you're commissioned before you go to COT), you are then obligated to the United States Air Force. A few weeks after your commissioning (usually, depending on when your COT date is), you'll receive your official orders to Active Duty.

You will know your NTP base and your duty station before you're commissioned; usually you're told at your initial acceptance.

You go to COT at Maxwell Air Force Base, AL BEFORE your ten week course (which is called the Nurse Transition Program, or NTP). There you get five weeks of AF training.

Only nurses with less than six months' experience go to NTP. I had two years of experience and didn't need to go. There are only a few bases in the US where the AF has NTP; my base, Lackland, is one of them. I know a couple of the others are Travis in California and I think Scott in IL or Wright-Patterson in Ohio (someone please correct me if I'm wrong). At any rate, there aren't many, so you may or may not end up stationed at your NTP base.

The paperwork doesn't technically "expire" for a year, not a few months. It can take almost a year to get the package together (I'm prior service AF and it took nine months to get my stuff together - talk about making a baby!). And really, it's your physical that's good for a year.

Do more digging in this forum and you'll find a lot more information. Also - be sure you're talking to a Health Professions Recruiter and not the guy or gal in the local shopping center. They're mostly recruiters for the enlisted force.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, APU/PACU, Peds, Flight.

Thank you all for replying! I have made it into the AF and leave for COT in August.

: )

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Specializes in Anesthesia.
Thank you all for replying! I have made it into the AF and leave for COT in August.

: )

Where are you going to be stationed?

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Specializes in ED. ICU, PICU, infection prevention, aeromedical e.

Congrats Luvbug!!!

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Thank you all for replying! I have made it into the AF and leave for COT in August.

: )

YAY!!! Welcome to the Blue! :clown::clown:

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Specializes in Med/Surg, APU/PACU, Peds, Flight.

I will be doing my NTP in Cincinnati and I will be stationed at Lakenheath AFB.

: )

Thanks everyone! This site definitely helped out with some of the process, even if reading some of the postings stressed me out before they were helpful. Ha.

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Specializes in Anesthesia.
I will be doing my NTP in Cincinnati and I will be stationed at Lakenheath AFB.

: )

Thanks everyone! This site definitely helped out with some of the process, even if reading some of the postings stressed me out before they were helpful. Ha.

Lakenheath as your 1st duty station....hmm...you officially suck....lol...

That is considered a great assignment! Congratulations!

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RAF Lakenheath was my original assignment when I was enlisted - and then I went to K9 school and got sent to (shudder) Oklahoma...

You'll love England! My husband's British so we go there quite a bit.

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hello,

first of all, congratulations luvbug on getting in.

i will also be graduating in may this year with my BSN and i've recently been talking to a recruiter. she told me slots were filled for this fiscal year, but they will be looking for applicants again in july of this year; typically there are 90 slots open for new grads nationwide, which seems like a small number to me.

my question is how competitive was it to get in? were they stringent on GPA requirements and such? you can email or PM me if you like.

cheers,

eric

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