Army (ICU) course. Getting questionable advice.

Hmm, well I am assuming she is being stationed at Fort Sam right? That being said there is a chance she will have a shot at the course again seeing as it is on-site or at least it was last time I checked. However, with that being said I would sit down with OIC and go over my short term and long terms goals to reiterate why the course will benefit her nursing skills for the Army as well career progression for herself. Remember he will be writing her change of rater OER if she does happen to go to the course and you are right in saying you don't want to **** him off but at the same time you don't want to pass up the opportunity. At one time I passed up Airborne School for another job and I have never seen a slot again. I still regret it.

I don't know about the 70% fail part as many Army ICU nurses are DC without prior service or ROTC experience and her already being in leadership is a huge step up from her BOLC peers as stated on her 1059. However, he is right in saying the military nursing arena is a bit different than the civilian world but I do not see how she wouldn't have acclimated by the time March rolls around.

BLUF: Tell her to go talk with him again via one on one counseling and clarify why she feels she should be in the course. You have to advocate for yourself.

Thank you for the reply. She has another sitdown scheduled for friday. I told her she needs to explain her goals and the timelines of those goals ( in as a respectable way as humanly possible. Since uncle sam is the one setting the goals lol) and how this ICU. course is extremely important for her goal of getting into USAGPAN.

Her OIC knows the course intimately, I would be a fool not to value his opinion as would she. I suggested she ask him to sign the form on the condition if she has not proven herself worthy by the time it comes around, she would greatly consider pulling out in hopes of a later date.

I have full confidence in her abilities to impress. I think he would be confident by March that she would do very well.

I do not know where the OIC came up with the 70% fail rate for nurses without military experience since it is a nursing course not a military type course. He might be getting his data a little confused and thinking that not only is she new to the Army but also nursing. I could see a high failure rate if new to nursing. It could be that he is short staffed and does not want to lose anyone.

Hello,

I'm an Army ICU nurse for the last 2 years now (total army time 8 yrs), and I will say she take the course if that's what she wants to do. When I went to the course in 2011 there were 3 locations (Ft. Sam, Walter Reed, and Madigan) now it's down to one at Ft.Sam joined with the ER nurses, point being it's difficult to get the course when you want it these days. We just got 6 new ICU nurses from the course and a few being from Ft. Sam, and it took over a year for approval to get a course date. The course material is nothing military about it (except working in a military hospital and doing an apft)...it's strictly patho and pharm and lot of it in a short period of time. I was a public health nurse prior to going to ICU course (basically hadn't touched/seen a sick patient in over 2 yrs), and I managed somehow to pass! Maybe the OIC wasn't aware of her Med-surg experience....I wouldn't worry too much about a bad OER (if it's bad in nursing it's usually do to OIC not being able to write well or the nurse did something terrible).

I agree with what was said above. If your wife wants to be an ICU nurse with an end goal of USAGPAN I would not pass up the spot she already has. From what I am hearing from recent grads, it is becoming more difficult to get into the course with only one location currently being offered. Turning down the spot could delay her a year or more waiting for another spot. I also went through course a year and a half ago at Fort Sam and while it wasn't an easy course it is definitely not as hard as her OIC is making it out to be. We only lost one individual out of a class of 20 when I went through. While your wife needs to be respectful of her current OIC she also needs to take control over her own career.