ARMY ED nursing vs. ARMY critical care nursing

[RealNut]

hi everyone,

i just had my meeting today with my Army healthcare recruiter. Now that the meeting is over, and I have had time to process all the info, I have a couple of questions. i am an experience ICU step down RN and in-patient OB RN. Basically, over the past five years I have pretty much seen and done it all. A bit of everything. I am interested in peri-operative, critical care, and ED, trauma.

any experienced Army RNs give me a run down of what to expect for each specialty (in the military world). I know what I see and do civilian is a lot different.

does the emergency specialty course include trauma management?

does peri-operative specialty course include RN first assist, or only prepare you to OR circulate?

is critical care ICU style nursing only?

and in the field, upon deployment, what role would each specialty nurse play upon care of the pt. Are there any specific specialty teams i should be aware of in the Army military nursing world.

Just to be frank, I have no interest in CRNA. The incentives are awesome, but 2.5 years of school in Texas while my spouse is at Ft. Ruckers in Alabama for flight school as well. Need to be able to do my training but keep joint post status as much as possible.

[athena55, BSN, RN]

hi everyone,

does the emergency specialty course include trauma management?

does peri-operative specialty course include rn first assist, or only prepare you to or circulate?

is critical care icu style nursing only?

i can only answer towards the critical care course, 8a: once you graduate from the ccnc, you will be assigned to an icu in a army medcen. i am not sure what you mean by "is critical care icu style nursing only?"

and in the field, upon deployment, what role would each specialty nurse play upon care of the pt. are there any specific specialty teams i should be aware of in the army military nursing world.

upon deployment it is according to the current needs of the army, specifically branch and/or forscom. you could have a few years of icu experience under your belt, have your ccrn, be a 66h8a and upon deployment find yourself an oic in the icw (a far cry from an icu)...or you could be placed within a feba fst.

[JavelinO]

Can new grads accepted to the Army Nursing Corps go right into the ED without any civilian experience?

[jeckrn, BSN, RN]

Generally no. The Army wants you to get some experience before sending you to a speciality area which is good. This builds your foundation of nursing along with letting you what different areas are out there. You might want to be an ED nurse now, but after being a nurse for a year deceid that another area would suit you best. If the Army sent you to school right away to be a M5 then you would be stuck there.