Air Force Reserve or Guard- NTP?

[brughm]

Hello-

I am contemplating a several different avenues for Air Force service. I really think either the Reserves or the Guard would work out best for me, but I have a dilemma. I work full-time in another career field, other than Nursing. I would like to keep my current career and yet still have a separate career in the Air Force, part-time.

Does the Guard or Reserves have a stipulation on maintaining a fulltime job in nursing? I understand you must have certain number of hours to maintain your license, which the drill weekend and 2 weeks a year would fulfill.

Also, are you required to have experience for the Reserves or Guard? I see mostly flight nursing and critical care jobs for Reserves and suspect they require experience.

Thanks for the help.

Marty

[LTinAK]

Hi Marty- Just wanted to offer my two cents. I just transitioned from Active Duty Air Force to the Air Force Reserves. I did NTP while on AD, but have never seen it offered for Reserves/Guard. Generally the Nurses in the Reserves/Guard have experience first before joining. Also, you do have a certain amount of hours that you have to be employed as a Nurse outside your military duty. I want to say it is 180 hours (but please don't quote me on that!) and you have to have your employer sign a piece of paper to verify your civilian employment, as your drill weekends/two weeks a year do not count towards it.

You could always contact a Recruiter too. There are different ones depending on if you want to join the Reserves/Active Duty.

Hope that helps and good luck!

[brughm]

Thanks for the info, I really appreciate your two cents. Is that 180hrs per year? Wonder if volunteer work would count?

I realize my situation is odd!!! Who in their right mind would want two careers?

What area do you specialize in?

Marty

[brughm]

sorry, post repeated... tried to delete

[LTinAK]

The hourly requirement is yearly. Could you get a PRN gig somewhere? I don't know if volunteer work counts, definitely something to look in to though. I worked Med-Surg for three years, then went to a clinic for two while I was AD. Now that I'm in Reserves, I have a civilian Med-Surg job, and do clinic work on my drill weekends.

You read my mind though, your situation is a little odd :-) Good luck to you!

[SRNA4U, BSN, DNP, RN, CRNA]

Are you sure about having to work a certain number of hours as a nurse while in the reserves? I'm currently on active duty and transitioning to the reserves in Dec while I will be attending a civilian nurse anesthesia school, in which I will not be working on the side. The recruiter said it wouldn't be a problem for me while in the reserves.

[AndyRN]

Hello All,

I am currently a Clinical Nurse in the Air Force Reserves and yes we are required to work at least 180 hours a year. There is a form that has to be signed by your supervisor/NM verifying this, just as LTinAK stated. It is my understanding that you currently have to be working as a nurse before the Air Force Reserves would even accept you. SRNA, you being in school may be a different situation. If I were you, I would contact a medical reserve unit to find out for sure. The recruiter doesn't seem too sure on this.

[SRNA4U, BSN, DNP, RN, CRNA]

Well I guess I can do 2 (12hr shifts/month) for 8 months equals 192 hrs probably through an agency or something. I really wasn't planning to work at all. Since my program is on the quarter system, we get a 1 week break at the end of every 10 week quarter. I guess I could do shifts during that time. Also, I am leaning more so towards Dover AFB for my reserve unit vs McGuire AFB, even though McGuire is a lot closer to Philly, but the Reserve Chief Nurse at Dover seemed very accomodating. McGuire has a very high ops tempo for deployment. I know for the 2 week annual tour, the Chief Nurse said I could break those up and do 1 week here and the other 1 week at another time during my breaks between the quarters. I really don't want to go IRR since I will be at 13 yrs active duty as October and would love to continue doing the drill on the weekends. I think I'll call that Chief Nurse back and get more info.