Army generic course guarantee vs ER/community health class

[idtx2]

Looking at Army active duty. The two classes I'm most interested in are the ER or Community Health. It's my understanding that you have to be selected/nominated at your duty station to attend these classes and they are not available as part of the generic course guarantee program.

My recruiter is telling me that my best bet for getting into the ER or Community Health class is to take the standard 3 year commitment and work hard to get the class I want instead of signing for the generic course guarantee. He says that committing to one of the other generic courses (OB, ICU, OR, MH) will lock me into that track and I will not be eligible for the ER of CH.

Can someone confirm this or share their experience?

How hard is it to get a slot for one of the ER or Community Health classes?

[jeckrn, BSN, RN]

Your recruiter is right. Once you get to your first duty station let the DCN (DON) know what you would like to do. Most will try to assign you to the area that you would like to work in, but as others as stated before. The needs of the Army, in this case the hospital, will come before yours.

[just_cause, BSN, RN]

yup - even if you knew the odds now.. as jeck said.. needs change. best you can do is to be aware of options, generally move to them, but as with everything in the military be flexible and fluid.. there are plenty of alternate routes to things - but those who are rigid don't see them and generally won't thrive.

[jeckrn, BSN, RN]

yup - even if you knew the odds now.. as jeck said.. needs change. best you can do is to be aware of options, generally move to them, but as with everything in the military be flexible and fluid.. there are plenty of alternate routes to things - but those who are rigid don't see them and generally won't thrive.

or survive/be happy in the military.

[lifeafter40]

Just as an aside... my recruiter said that they are only offering Genaric course guarantee to the experienced nurses that are direct commissions. (All direct commissions I guess, but they are really only looking at experienced nyrses right now). I was told that I would probably not get the guarantee if accepted into the Nurse Candidate Program, but that I could still apply to whichever course I was interested in once on active duty.

[jeckrn, BSN, RN]

I do not think that is anything new.