Air Force Reserve Nurse - Join now or wait?

[ryschall]

All,

I am a prior service Marine infantryman currently in a BSN program in Texas. I would like to join the AF reserve but I am unsure if I should work for a year Critical Care/ Emergency nursing in a GN residency and then join as a critical care nurse or go head and join now as a GN/Clinical nurse MOS. If I joined now I would plan to do a residency after completing my required training. Please give me any advice you all have.

Thank you!

[Lunah, MSN, RN]

When do you graduate? You should probably talk to a health care recruiter if you haven't already to discuss your qualifications and assess the needs of the service. Sometimes they will have fewer slots for new grads and more for experienced nurses, which may help you make your decision. Good luck in the remainder of your program!

[jfratian, DNP, RN, CRNA]

Speaking as a current AF nurse, ICU and ER nurses have a lot more opportunity that a general clinic/med-surg nurse. For example, there are many deployment teams that are specific to only ICU or ER nurses. I'm not very familiar with the reserves though. I've heard it's difficult to change your specialty (we call it the AFSC- Air Force Specialty Code) in the reserves, so you may want to look into that as well.