Air guard nursing

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I have been wanting to join the military as a nurse. Mostly looking at reserves and not active duty. My cousin is in the Air Guard and I believe he is an engineer, not healthcare, and he told me to look into the Air National Guard. I spoke with a nurse I work with who was an Army healthcare recruiter and she told me to be careful. She said for any branch healthcare recruiters will tell you what you want to know and of course it won't be true. I told her I do not mind deploying but I rather stay away from it because I will be starting a family and be married by around 2017, my Fiance and I are waiting because she has to finish school and I am 1/4 through my BSN. I do have an associate's degree in nursing with about 9 months of med/surg experience and I am 23. What I want to know is how nursing is in the Air Guard, Air Force active or Air Force reserves? I live in Maryland and there is an Air Guard center in Baltimore but there is a big base in Dover Delaware which is an hour and a half from me. They do have flight nursing which is a possible interest for me as well as clinical nursing. I know when I talk to a recruiter they will most likely lie and/or give me false hope because they have to fill quotas. I want to talk to a nurse who is in the Air Guard to get a better idea of what it is like rather than from a recruiter.

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Specializes in Adult Critical Care.

I think there is a big difference between those who recruit officers and those who recruit enlisted people. Officer recruiters aren't pushy or demanding at all; these days they have more applicants than slots.

You won't be eligible to apply as a nurse without a BSN for any branch active duty, guard, or reserve. I think the national guard used to take ADNs for a while, but these days they don't have to.

For the Air Force, most flight nurses actually are guard or reserves. A lot of people I went to COT with were guard flight nurses. They only take experienced critical care nurses though.

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Yeah I am not planning on going in until I complete my BSN. In the meantime I am trying to get as much experience as possible. As for the recruiters thanks for the tip. The one recruiter that I work with is giving my information to some people she knows that are around the area that she trusts. She told me my best bet is to go Air Force active duty. So if I wanted to be a flight nurse they would require critical care nursing? Say I had about 2 years of ER experience (I do not have any, but I may have an interview in the next couple weeks for one) they may consider that experience? Will I have to compete with other nurses for a limited amount of positions or do they take decent experience nurses and mold them to be great flight nurses? I would love to do flight nursing but if I can't then thats not a problem. I just want to know how competitive and which route would be best.

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Specializes in Adult Critical Care.

I don't know if ED counts or not. It's a little odd, but from what I understand they will direct commission people without flight experience if they do guard or reserves. However, they won't do it for active duty. AD flight nurses have to do another specialty first.

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Ok gotcha. I guess the best thing to do is talk to a healthcare recruiter. Or if possible a flight nurse in the guard or reserves. Thanks for your help.

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Specializes in ER; MH; LTC.

This is not always true They only take experience critical care nurses though.” I am in the process of getting signed up in the ANG for Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron and I am not required to have critical care experience. During my interview they report that they range in specialties from MH, PED, ER, ICU and MED/SURG.

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Specializes in ER; MH; LTC.

JSBARTL the best bet is to talk to the recruiter and ask to talk to the Chief Nurse. This individual will be able to assist you with any questions you have and you do not need to worry about getting false information. You do have to have your BSN though. I was looking to apply in July but I was put on hold until I finished my BSN in Dec. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. I think the thing to take from these post is that every guard base is different.

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Specializes in Ortho, Med surg and L&D.

Hello,

As best as I understand it the Reserves deploy the highest and the Guard less.

Jen

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Specializes in Ortho, Med surg and L&D.
Yeah I am not planning on going in until I complete my BSN. In the meantime I am trying to get as much experience as possible. As for the recruiters thanks for the tip. The one recruiter that I work with is giving my information to some people she knows that are around the area that she trusts. She told me my best bet is to go Air Force active duty. So if I wanted to be a flight nurse they would require critical care nursing? Say I had about 2 years of ER experience (I do not have any, but I may have an interview in the next couple weeks for one) they may consider that experience? Will I have to compete with other nurses for a limited amount of positions or do they take decent experience nurses and mold them to be great flight nurses? I would love to do flight nursing but if I can't then thats not a problem. I just want to know how competitive and which route would be best.
Hi again, you could always have the Military train you in their ER course too and then pay them back the time working in their er as active duty, (although I see you aren't looking to go active.)
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