Air National Guard Nursing

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I am a BSN student who will be graduating in December. Woohoo! My husband is a pilot in the Army and recently sent me a vacancy announcement for a nursing position with the Air National Guard where we are moving. My interest is definitely piqued, but I have some reservations. Are there any Air National Guard nurses who can speak to what types of skills and such they learned from guard nursing not generally available in civilian life? Additionally, I am worried about this hampering my ability to get a regular nursing job and worried about deployments etc. I would love to get some flight nursing opportunities and have heard wonderful things about militay nursing in general, but am afraid of some extended deployment happening at the opposite time my husband deploys and totally destroying our new marriage.

I am all ears!

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K-Ron,

I am serving with the Air National Guard and I absolutely love it. From what we're told at my unit at this time there are no mandatory overseas deployments for ANG nurses. Those are voluntary at this time and do not extend past 6 months. Understand though that ANG means serving both state and federal missions. In my state we have a CERF team which essentially is a disaster response medical team that all nurses are expected to participate in. The guard takes up a lot of time but it's worth every minute of it. I love it! MY husband by the way is active duty army and it is great to pick at him about the differences! If you have any questions please feel free to ask away!

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Hi, Please correct me if i am wrong. Do ANG still takes nurses with ADN. I remember read on their page and from a health recruiter over the phone they will take as an officer. However, you will have 4 years to get you BSN.Otherwise, you will be discharge from ANG.

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I'll try this again, for some reason my first reply wasnt added....what you are asking about is correct and incorrect. Some ANG units do not accept ADN nurses...it is up to the commander and chief nurse. The unit's recruiting office knows whether their units accepts ADN nurses or not. The four years thing is not necessarily true. the ANG gives what they term contructive credit for your civilian nursing experience. I believe the credit is 1 week for every 2 you have been a nurse or something to that effect. Let me see if I can make this make sense in typing...ok take my case. I have been in the ANG since Feb 29, 2008 (I commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant on that date). I however have been a civilian RN since May 2007. They did their little magical computation and gave me a date of rank (or competetive seniority date in more civilian terms) of OCt 21, 2007. This means that I will have to have my BSN by OCt 21, 2011 (when I am eligible for captain). If the 4 years thing was true across the board I would've had til Feb 29, 2012 to obtain my BSN. GEt my drift? Now with the constructive credit you can earn time and rank but since you are an ADN nurse you are not authorized rank past 1st Lieutenant. The ranks of 1st Lieutenant and Captain are basically (but not in all cases) automatic ranks and are awarded every 2 years based on date of rank. With all that being said...if you have the opportunity and truly have the time to obtain your BSN while holding 2 jobs (the ANG is not as part time as most people think, and is definitely a far cry from 1 weekend a month 2 weeks a year especially if your unit participates in CERF) then go for it....the ANG is a wonderful organization. I have enjoyed my time so far and have received lots of free training and nursing certifications, been to great places to train and to work, and met many wonderful people along the way. I have nothing but good things to say about the ANG, just keep in mind that it will take up some of your time. Case in point... I have had to work at one time 18 days straight between 3 days at my civilian job before leaving for a trip, 12 days gone for the ANG, and right back to work at my civilian job for another 3 days. This makes finding time for school work difficult at times, especially if you are away at a place that doesnt have internet access or you are in a school and need to use your down time to study for the military training.

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Specializes in ER.

So are they paying for your BSN? What state are you located in? Was it difficult to get into and did they give you any sign on bonus? I am prior service. I have an ADN, been an RN since Oct of 2006. I like the idea of no mandatory deployments and doing the humanitarian missions (part of why I became a nurse). Where do you do your weekends at? A hospital? MEPS? Sorry, I just have a lot of questions....lol

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Oncology, Education, Psych,.

Ok, so I know I am a few months late with this, but my advice to you is "Go for it!!" I joined this past fall and haven't regretted a day of it! My husband is also in the ANG, he is a full time AGR in another Unit, that's how I found out about the job too. I have my BSN & MSN, they "credited" me with 3.6 yrs of experience & I joined as a 1LT. I a bit nervous, but looking forward to RCOT, the 2 week officer training sometime this year.

I don't do the same nursing "things" on ANG w/e's that I do at work. I won't lie, it's a long work week for me (I work M-F) to work S/S then another 5 days, but I like the change of pace, change of people, & atmosphere. The opportunities I am hoping to take advantage of are numerous. Take advantage of what they have to offer.

Good luck!

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Can you do ANG full time? Kind of like a tech job in army national guard.

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It seems like on the chatroom part of the recruiting website the customer service kid I was talking to mentioned that ANG won't take new graduate nurses. I think he/she mention a six month minimum nurse work experience.

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Any new or current information about ANG nursing?

The idea is becoming more and more appealing.

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