Air force nursing

taz628, BSN, RN · Mar 14, 2009

While I'm not all too familiar with ROTC, I *CAN* tell you that you MUST have your BSN to be a nurse in the AF. You'll enter the AF as a 2nd lieutenant. (Officer.)

seuss79 · Mar 14, 2009

I am active duty Air Force and in my final semester of nursing school. I have been in the AF for 11 years. To answer your question, you can do it either way. If you want to finish school now with ROTC you need to find a detachment in the area you live. Your specific school doesn't have to have an AF detachment, but you need a cross town agreement with the school you attend.

You can also get through school and then find an AF medical recruiter. Currently the AF is offering $40K student loan repayment for a 4 year committment. I am researching this for several of my fellow graduates. Here in Hawaii the hospitals don't hire new grads, they would rather hire travel nurses, so many of my friends are considering joining up.

I have a medical recruiter locally that I'm sure would talk to you if you are interested. You could at least ask her the quesions you have. She will only be able to help you if you join the AF and finish school on your own. Let me know if I can help. The AF has been a great way of life for me and my family, I wish you the best!

Stephanie

meluhn · Mar 14, 2009

Stephanie,

How does that work when you have a family? Do you have to be away from them for long periods of time? If I joined as a BSN would they put me in the area I wanted to work and pay for my masters/crna? Is 37 too old?

Mel

Kylea · Mar 14, 2009

To OP, the best thing for you to do if you have questions is to contact your local Air Force recruiter. They can give you answers to the questions you have. Just remember going in what it is that you want, and stick to your guns. If your preference is to join right away and get your degree while you serve that is fine. If you want wait and finish school and then join, don't let them talk you into joining now. I always recommend open honesty with a recruiter. They have a job to do (recruit you) and you have your own agenda. Don't let them think they can convince you to do something you know you aren't going to do.

Harleyhead · Mar 14, 2009

Some good advice here. so take heed. I think you should finish your BSN the talk with a nurse recruter. Good Luck.

seuss79 · Mar 14, 2009

Stephanie,

How does that work when you have a family? Do you have to be away from them for long periods of time? If I joined as a BSN would they put me in the area I wanted to work and pay for my masters/crna? Is 37 too old?

Mel

Mel, to answer your question,as a nurse when you first join the AF you will attend commissioned officer training (COT) for 5 weeks in Montgomery, AL. After that we go straight to the nurse transition program (NTP). This is the AF initial nurses preceptor type program. You can chose which of the 7 bases you would like to be stationed at and the nursing personnel managers do a good job of trying to make the place you go to NTP and your first assignment the same place. Worst case scenario, you would not do NTP at the same base you will be assigned to. In this case you would be away from your family for 5 weeks of COT and 13 weeks of NTP. My experience has been that it is cheaper for the AF to move you from COT to the first base you will be assigned to and it saves them money.

The 7 bases I mentioned before are Lackland AFB, TX (San Antonio), Travis AFB, CA, Andrews AFB (Maryland), Wright-Patterson AFB, OH (Dayton--where I am going for NTP and my 1st base as RN), Eglin AFB, FL, Nellis AFB, NV, and I think Langley AFB, VA. As a new recruit you will get one of your top three choices for your first assignment.

As far as the age thing, I am not 100%. I can find out for you. If you are interested don't give up if you are over the age limit, there are waivers for everything! The AF will let you chose a Med-Surg or the OB track. If you chose Med-Surg after two years you can apply for AFIT which would allow you to get your CRNA. As an AF RN you could also attend a CRNA program at the Uniformed Services University, elite but very much a possibility--all paid for. The AFIT program means you attend a civilian school, tuition paid, and you continue to get paid at whatever rank you are at the time accepted. Pretty good deal--get paid to go to school and they pay for school, similar to the program I am in now.

Hope all this helps:)

Stephanie

seuss79 · Mar 14, 2009

on a side note, anyone who is looking for information about AF nursing should be sure to contact an AF medical services recruiter for help, not an enlisted AF recruiter...you could call the local recruiting office for the number but the enlisted recruiters won't be able to help much...

Trumystery13 · Mar 15, 2009

Hey Stephanie

Thank you for replying to my questions. You helped me out a lot

I am interested in talking to the medical service recruiter. Do you know of one in California? I talked to an AF enlisted recruiter once but they could not help me because they did not know much about the nursing program.

seuss79 · Mar 16, 2009

I don't know who the AF medical services recruiter for CA is. You can call 808-486-9295, this is the Honolulu office they should have a phone number for you.

Stephanie

tulpen1234 · Mar 26, 2009

http://www.airforce.com/contact-us/recruiter-locator/

select your state, make sure you select health service option

Nynatv25 · Mar 26, 2009

Hello,

I was active duty AF for 8 Years and thinking about going back in as a Nurse. Here is some info I found. Good Info on this link including Phone Numbers...Good Luck

http://www.airforce.com/pdf/nursePDF.pdf