Air Force Nursing Selection Boards Nov 2016

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Did anyone else apply for the November 2016 USAF Nurse boards? I am applying as a fully qualified ER Nurse (46N3J). Today (Dec 2) was the earliest day the board may have released results, but nothing has been released as of now (5pm PST), so I'm guessing we won't hear anything until next week.

Just looking to network with other potential USAF RNs!

Have an answer to wife going to MacDill. Turns out she was not selected as OR but as Clinical. When she was informed that her selected area of Critical Care was not available they asker her preference between OR or Clinical and she choose OR. So when she was first notified about going to MacDill as an OR recruiter at least had it part correct. So my question now is how long does a person have to wait to request a change of specialty and if she stays in Clinic does that open up overseas more or make it less likely? Appreciate any thought on future moves in that area, seems like it might open up smaller bases? Thanks.

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Specializes in Adult Critical Care.

Clinical nurse simply means that she has no specialty. She can go to almost any airforce base. She could staff an outpatient clinic, an inpatient med-surg floor, or PACU. She typically will not be assigned to OR, ER, ICU, NICU, or OB. It will be at the discretion of the chief nurse at the base she is assigned to.

Being unspecialized does allow you far more base options. However, it does open up less desirable assignments too (Korea, certain rural parts of Texas, North Dakota, Turkey, etc). An ICU nurse, for example, generally would not be assigned to any of those places (at least early in their career), since there are no major hospitals at those locations.

For OR, they've been allowing people to apply for a re-training program after 1 year at their first base. Since you are going to an area without an OR, I would say it's more like 2 years.

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Thanks jfratian, curious how long a person typically spends at their first assignment location and then what if any say you have in location for the next move? While we are waiting for the scroll and all that entails what can we be doing as far as resources to prepare for moving. Wife wondering if she will be appointed a person of contact like a mentor? Since wife will be starting May 1st and i will stay back while kids finish school what type housing might she expect to find or have available for her in the interim. Understand the wait list is pretty long at MacDill, anyone have experience there with transitional or temporary housing?

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My chief nurse from my gaining base called me last week. She is assigning me a sponsor that will contact me in a week or two. This person will help me for the upcoming move, transition, and orientation. I believe all of the fully qualified nurses should get one before reporting to their new bases.

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Specializes in Adult Critical Care.

You stay at U.S. bases between 2 to 4 years. The minimum is 2 years.

You generally stay at overseas bases between 1 year (Korea, Turkey) and 2 years (Germany, Japan). These are controlled tours and you will know exactly how long you will be there going in...called the DEROS (date expected to return from overseas).

You do get a say. You get much more of a say if you tie your requests to your career goals. For example, I want to go to bases with an OR because I want to be an OR nurse. That works a lot better than, I want to go to Florida because I have family there.

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Specializes in Adult Critical Care.

TLF, the temp lodging, is pretty mediocre. Think a dated motel 6. You can stay there for 2 months I believe. If you don't get housing by then, you get a housing allowance (called BAH) to get the apartment or house of your choice off base.

You will get a sponsor. That person is one of your future coworkers.

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Thanks, just got email from my wife sponsor. Still has not sworn in or gotten orders which seem to be required before you can get on the housing wait list? Wondering if years of experience on pay scale counts only previous Military which in this case is reserves or do they also factor in years of nursing? Thanks.

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Specializes in Adult Critical Care.

Have you looked at housing in Tampa? Usually the BAH does pretty good at covering rent. An O1 with dependents gets $1806 per month in addition to base pay in Tampa. Personally, I'd rather skip the typically mediocre military housing and just get something on my own. You get to keep what you don't spend too. If you take the military housing, then you don't get any BAH.

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We have been looking and looking at several bases till we knew where we were landing. The base housing at MacDill looks like some of the best out there and features we are looking at and reasoning for our thinking are:

No travel thru gates and sounds like there can be some long waits at this base.

Both kids can attend school only blocks from 03 Housing.

No more commuting as we have dome at JBLM.

Traffic in and around sounds bad and tired of that whole grind.

Let someone else take care of all aspects of maintenance including grounds.

This move (our first) will retire me and the beach, golf course, fitness center and wood shop are all walking distance.

With all that said I would love to hear the other side of the coin, wife is a bit younger than me and this will be our first Military move and thinking it will be nice to try base housing even though many of her Army co-workers are saying the opposite. many are much younger and sounds like night life plays a big part of the allure to off base living. I am much older, wife not so much but like the sound of not having to go thru gates every day and having many activities we like right at our doorstep. Biggest worry right now is waiting list and what to do in the interim, should be an adventure.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Hi all! So I found out in Dec also that I was selected as a 46N3E (critical care nurse) and will be going to COT May 22nd. I have created a thread entitled COT 17/05 if you would like to connect there!!

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Wife was sworn in last Friday, any idea when orders will come? Was sworn in reserve because recruiter said orders will come sooner, anyone hear of this? Has anyone heard about the scroll process and what role it plays in all this? Appreciate it.

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Has any had any problems with their commissioning? My background check is severely delayed, my recruiter says the background checkers are behind schedule, over a month delay now. Anyone else heard anything?

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