Airforce vs Navy Nursing

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I am an ICU nurse, married with 2 kids and I am highly interested in joining the military. I sat down with both an Airforce and Navy recruiter. I selected these two branches because people have told me that these two would be a good fit for me. When I sat down with the Airforce recruiter I didn't get enough information because he didn't know because he is not a nurse. The Navy had a nurse in the office so I was able to get a little more of my questions answered. I was told by a few people that the Airforce didn't have much of a need for medical staff because they basically have what they need. I was also told that they have a lot of super clinics and not many hospitals, therefore they would send me to Texas or California where their 2 main hospitals are located. My ultimate goal is to go back to school and become a CRNA. I heard that getting into USUHS is very competitive, so I want to make sure I have a good chance of getting in after a few years. Therefore my questions are:

Is there a difference between the 2 branches for ICU nursing? If so what?

What are the positives and Negatives?

What is the housing like? Bases?

For prior student loans, Is there tuition reimbursement?

What is it like on the floor?

What is the nurse to patient ratio?

Is deployment longer than 6 months?

What is the acceptance rate for USUHS?

What do I have to do to get accepted to their CRNA program?

How long between each promotion?

And thank you all for answering my many questions!

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Specializes in Float Pool - A Little Bit of Everything.

I was in the Navy and was an Airforce Spouse after I got out. I was not a Nurse in the military. But generally speaking the Navy is like Super 8 and Airforce is like The Hilton in regards to most bases and quality of life.

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.

I moved this thread to the Government/Military Nursing forum to ensure maximum responses.

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Thank you!

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I am an ICU nurse, married with 2 kids and I am highly interested in joining the military. I sat down with both an Airforce and Navy recruiter. I selected these two branches because people have told me that these two would be a good fit for me. When I sat down with the Airforce recruiter I didn't get enough information because he didn't know because he is not a nurse. The Navy had a nurse in the office so I was able to get a little more of my questions answered. I was told by a few people that the Airforce didn't have much of a need for medical staff because they basically have what they need. I was also told that they have a lot of super clinics and not many hospitals, therefore they would send me to Texas or California where their 2 main hospitals are located. My ultimate goal is to go back to school and become a CRNA. I heard that getting into USUHS is very competitive, so I want to make sure I have a good chance of getting in after a few years. Therefore my questions are:

Is there a difference between the 2 branches for ICU nursing? If so what?

What are the positives and Negatives?

What is the housing like? Bases?

For prior student loans, Is there tuition reimbursement?

What is it like on the floor?

What is the nurse to patient ratio?

Is deployment longer than 6 months?

What is the acceptance rate for USUHS?

What do I have to do to get accepted to their CRNA program?

How long between each promotion?

And thank you all for answering my many questions!

depends on what you want to do. i was never in the navy but in the air force (guard) and army. air force you can do flight nursing on aircraft or ccatt- critical care air transport team. i don't know about navy except they have bigger hospitals and they deploy using the mercy and comfort. As far as CRNA school, you will most likely have to wait a certain amount of time before you can even apply to USUHS; when i asked the air force last year they said it would be like 5 years on active duty before i could apply. I direct commissioned into the army's crna program which was my first choice anyways. hope this helps some

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Specializes in Adult Critical Care.

All from an Air Force perspective:

Our deployments are generally not more than 6 months, but there are never any guarantees.

The recruiter will know much more about the current availability of loan repayment; if you can't get it when you join then you won't be getting it. I got $40K in loan repayment (which you do pay income taxes on by the way...so you get 30% less or so), but it may not be there now.

The USUHS CRNA program is the most competitive nursing program in the Air Force Bar none I think. Maybe FNP is pretty close. I couldn't tell you specifics, but a lot more people get turned down than get it. You should go to CRNA school before you join. It's easier to get into a civilian school.

The CRNA program basically requires you that you are a practicing ICU nurse with 2 years of time spent at your current base, GRE in the last 5 years, and some pre-requisites. There is a pretty lengthy paper application as well.

You'll likely come in with 50% credit for all years spent full-time as a nurse. If you have been a nurse for 4 years, you'll come in as an O-2. 8 years would be an O-3. Nurses make O-3 for breathing and staying out of trouble. If you come in as an O-1, you get O-2 automatically after 2 years. You get O-3 (Captain) 2 years after O-2. O-4 (Major) and above are competitive and they look at your performance records, certifications, advanced degrees, etc. Most nurses make O-4 'in the zone' around 6 years after O-3. You can reasonably expect O-4, but anything above that can be a crapshoot.

ICU ratios are 1:2 or 1:1 depending on the patient. The floors take 6.

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