Air Force Nursing!?!?

Hi,

I've been in the Air Force a little of ten years but just recently was accepted into a nursing school, and hopefully an Air Force nursing program. I can't answer your questions as specific as you would probably like as I've never been a nurse in the Air Force but I can give you a general idea.

1. Deployment rates can vary by job but typically you have plenty of warning before you go. I'm in a job considered to have little warning and we get about 4+ months but other jobs can know a year or more out. I have seen cases where people were deployed within less than a month due to an emergency by the original person scheduled to deploy.

2. One thing about the Military is that their needs come first. Typically, if you schedule out leave and make plans you will have no issues. As usually, there are always exceptions. I've seen people miss their own scheduled weddings, births and graduations or just have leave cancelled for various reasons; I'm working this weekend and some of my coworkers leave was cancelled short notice.

3. I've been in 10 years and just finished all my prerequisites to transfer to a state university to finish a 2 year nursing program and receive my BSN. Your husband may not be in the same boat for prerequisites as he is already an EMT, but for the first few years of the Air Force it can be difficult to attended school with deployments, job training and work schedules. I've been fortunate that the last couple years my schedule has been stable enough to allow me to attend school near full time, before that I got a class here and a class there, 1 to 3 a year. There are some good enlisted to commissioned nursing programs and the age limit is 42 on most compared to 32 for non medical commissions. There is a lot to look at for this scenario as the potential is there to get stuck in a job that doesn't afford the opportunity to attended school; what if you're stationed in a foreign country? If you get into the Air Force, I would recommend he focuses on school and not join.

4. Can't help you with this question but if you are close to an Air Force base I would advise contacting the Chief Nurse on the installation (Call the base operator, get the number for the clinic/hospital and then keep asking questions on how to contact the Chief Nurse). The Chief Nurse will be able to answer all these questions more in depth than you can imagine. If you take anything from this response it should be to talk to a Chief Nurse. While I would never talk bad about an adviser (recruiter?) let me just say it is best to get your info about a job in the military from the people who do the work.

On a final note, the military lifestyle isn't for everyone. I've heard stories of RN's that joined, excelled as a nurse but couldn't get used to the military lifestyle. I have also heard of RN's that loved it. I personally can't wait to become an RN in the Air Force but then again I'm a little partial. Good luck.

Nevermind everyone... I got disqualified for having asthma Stupid asthma. Any other suggestions? I got nothin

Thank you so much! That's very helpful