Any Walter Reed or Ft. Dix nurses out there?

ReadyCaringProud · Apr 4, 2008

I am an ANC officer at WRAMC. I had 7 years in the USAR before coming onto active duty as a 2LT. If you would like to talk feel free to PM me.

spawnupe · Apr 4, 2008

Hey thanks for the reply. I am unfamiliar with the PM process. But wanted to communicate with you to say thanks for your reply. I am interested in joining the military again. I beleive that it is very good to see how it would be from a nursing perspective. However, I do understand that they give you 138K for loans. But at what price? I am not afraid of deploying nor am I leary of the living conditions. But I want to know the facts. Have you received your gauranteed course yet? How long did it take for you to get it? Are you working in your field of specializaiton? Is it what you thought it would be( honestly) ? I saw the movie STOP LOSS today. Have you seen this impact nurses( army) I understand that in the Army your are a soldier first before you are a nurse. Have you seen anyone(nurses) called to duty to participate in combat arms? Just trying to get the facts. Thanks again for your reply

ReadyCaringProud · Apr 5, 2008

first of all i want to express the fact that i am speaking just from my experiences and not from an official position. so my experiences may not be the same as other officers, especially other branches of the military. when i was deciding whether to join or not i tried to talk to as many different people as possible to get as many points of view as possible. what may be the status quo on my floor may be very different even within the same facility. as you change floors, sections, and facilities you will see experiences that vary but still have very much in common. use your recruiter as a knowledge base (thats their job) and ask them to accompany you to visit military facilities and walk around and speak to the people who are working the floors. my recruiter took me to different floors i thought i might be interested in at walter reed, introduced me and politely stepped out of the conversation and let me talk to other officers about their experiences and feelings. this worked great for me because it reaffirmed pretty much everything i was being told and i didn't have to worry 'am i just being fed this by a person whose sole job is to get me to sign up?' i would suggest it for everyone who thinks that they may want to join but is still uneasy (rightfully so) about the commitment.

hey thanks for the reply. i am unfamiliar with the pm process. but wanted to communicate with you to say thanks for your reply. i am interested in joining the military again. i beleive that it is very good to see how it would be from a nursing perspective. however, i do understand that they give you 138k for loans. but at what price? i am not afraid of deploying nor am i leary of the living conditions. but i want to know the facts. have you received your gauranteed course yet?
the generic course selection program (gcsp) applies only to the icu, or, ob/gyn, and psych courses. it does not apply to the er course. you must have it in writing in your contract that you sign. i will go to my course of preference (critical care nursing course) in september after 16 months on active duty (3 months in obc, 6 weeks on orientation). this also depends on your ward's staffing and the amount of officers that are needed for deployments. this is the exception in your contract that reads " the officer understands that the needs of the army may preclude from attending a course within the time line set forth due to deployment in conditions of war, national emergency, and etc. " what i am being told by head nurse and section supervisor is that you should have between 12 and 18 months of experience before going to your course of preference. i put in my paperwork to request the gcsp at eleven months. i will attend within the 12 to 18 month timeframe.
how long did it take for you to get it? are you working in your field of specializaiton?
your initial job assignment usually is always based upon the needs of the mtf (military treatment facility) you are placed at. for example, upon inprocessing at wramc you are asked about your preferences for job assignment in the different floors (e.g. cardiac stepdown, neurosurg, pacu, er, etc.) you rank your top 3 assignments as well as indicate your preferences in a letter of introduction to the deputy commander that you will draft while at obc. they say you are most likely to get an initial assignment of a med-surg or step-down/intermediate care unit. however i have seen new officers with no prior nursing experience go straight into the er, pacu, and working in the department of nursing (doing nonclinical assignments, such as performance improvement). i recommend to everyone that i have spoken to take the hardest clinical assignment (the one no one else wants to take) to start off with. it is only by testing yourself do you find what you are truly capable of. this is the best advice i got from other people before coming into the anc. this will give you the best foundation clinically right out of the gate to progress successfully in your nursing career. i am thankful for the time i have spent developing and honing my clinical skills on a med-surg-psych floor.
is it what you thought it would be( honestly) ? i saw the movie stop loss today. have you seen this impact nurses( army) i understand that in the army your are a soldier first before you are a nurse. have you seen anyone(nurses) called to duty to participate in combat arms?

stop loss is an involuntary extension of a service member's enlistment contract. as a commissioned officer you do not enlist, but instead take an oath of office. to my knowledge stop loss does not apply to commissioned officers. once your service requirements (depending on the amount of loans and bonus that you received) which is usually 3 or 4 years is over, and your 8 year active duty service obligation (adso) which you can spend in the reserves or irr (individual ready reserve) are over you must write an official letter withdrawing your oath of office.

and no i have not seen any nurses get involuntary called to duty in combat arms. i have yet to be deployed with the amedd (did deploy once in the reserves as a signal corps) though. in obc some of our instructors, who were not nurses but instead 70b (medical service corps with no special medical degree) spoke to us that as an officer in the army you can be called to lead a convoy in iraq. from their experiences this happened during the first couple tours in oif i, ii. however this seems to be outside the norm from people i have spoken to who have deployed recently. can in special conditions it happen, i suppose. if you are a nurse in a brigade combat team i could understand that you will be in on convoys. but these positions are few and far in between. i personally look at the situation in the terms that you are a very expensive investment the army and the amedd made. would they want to risk that investment when they are already short nurses and especially specialized nurses to serve on the front lines? i would hope any logical leader could see that this is not in the organizations best interest. this opinion was seconded by a few nurses who had just returned from deployment who visited us while i was in obc. they had been with the 10th csh in baghdad and were featured in the hbo documentary baghdad er. they were flown from kuwait into baghdad. from the airport they took blackhawks to the green zone. the few times they could not get a helicopter to take them to the green zone they were taken in an heavily armored bus with mp escort to the green zone. i would like to hear if anyone else has experiences on this. the army nurse corps lost its first nurse in combat since the vietnam war. look up cpt maria ortiz. she was killed in the heavily defended green zone by indirect fire (mortars) while on her way back from doing pt.

from my experience it is everything that you make it. does everything go exactly the way you want it? no. is it easy? no. is it stressful? yes. do you have to display extreme amounts of flexibility. yes. is it rewarding? yes.

if you want to challenge yourself, step up immediately into a leadership position within your facility/floor this is the job for you. i was a charge nurse responsible for all personnel/patients on my shift and floor within 3 months of leaving orientation. i have been on numerous committees on my floor and assisted on transporting aerovac patients 72 hours out of iraq from the flight line at andrews afb to wramc. i have participated in a mock mass cal exercise and if duty calls would respond to a real one. i have taken care of very grateful oif veterans whose courage is extremely inspiring to me and korean war veterans who braved the extreme cold in defense of our country. fellow classmates i went to nursing school that i still keep in touch with have done very few of the things that i have already done.

my near future i hope looks like this: i look forward to the icu course and then hope to attend the joint enroute care course (providing nursing care in rotary wing aircraft) and then deploy. of course it will be hard to be away from you family and friends but professionally as a nurse i can not think of any greater challenge or reward that to serve in that capacity. i keep in mind this one of my patients one day was a former army nurse corps officer who spent one year out of her 25 years as a nurse deployed. that one year she was deployed was the most memorable rewarding and special year to her out of her many years in nursing. to me that speaks volumes.

if you would like to talk further feel free to click on my screen name and send me an email and can we can even talk by phone if you would like. i hope i have been helpful to you.