Army nurse reserves

jeckrn, BSN, RN · Jul 26, 2018

Hello,
I am considering joining the Army nurse reserves. Can anyone elaborate on their experience with the reserves? I am speaking to a recruiter but I would like first hand information on it as well. I have seven years of civilian med/surg experience. I am a single female in my early 30's with no kids.
A few questions that I have:
1. If you work every other weekend at your regular job, and you drill one weekend a month, does that mean you only have one weekend free per month?
That will depend on if your drill weekend is on your weekend of work and you do not switch weekends. Your employer can not change your weekends because of drill or require you to take benefit time.
2. Do you plan to stick with it for 20+ years?
Retired after 28 years of reserves and active
3. Did you have difficulty transitioning back to your civilian job after returning from deployment?
It can be an issue since your peers and bosses sometimes expect you to be at the same level of knowledge of the unit as when you left. Depending on where and how your deployment went there is the possibility of mental health issues on your return.
4. Anyone have any regrets on joining? Anyone here love the reserves and would stay in it for as long as they can?
None, as before retired
5. During drill weekends, are you working as a nurse or attending classes moreso?
That will depend on your unit and where it is located at. If a unit is located close to a military facility you could work at that facility at times. Most of the time reservist are working on readiness for deployment not patient care.
6. I've never lived far away from my family. Being in the reserves would keep me close to them, but during deployment I am a little bit afraid of the homesickness aspect. Anyone want to share on their experience with that?
Luckily most areas were nurses deploy to have internet connections. It is not the same quality as stateside but usable. Other times you can be activated and sent to a stateside facility.
7. Is passing the GI bill along to your kids/future kids an option?
As of right now it is but there has been some things in the news about possible changes.
8. Does drill weekend pay cause any financial hardship for you? I live in a state with a very high cost of living, and minusing one weekend a month of my civilian pay would make things slightly more difficult for me.
This is something you have to think about because each individual has different living cost. You have to also think about your 2 weeks of active duty and possible activation. If you are activated for greater than 30 days there is the Soldier & Sailor act which can help with interest rates, leases etc.
9. For the single people, who handles your finances/bills when you're on deployment? Do you rent out your home during that time? Or you just find a family member/friend to handle it for you? I don't want to burden anyone with those kinds of things. I guess I could find a property manager temporarily if I need to?
When you are activated you will receive BAH (housing allowance) for your zip code so you should not have to rent your house to cover the expenses. BAH is based on rank; if you look at the DFAS website they have a BAH calculator. With your experience you should be either a 1LT (O2) or Captain (O3). You will just need to have someone check in on the house from time to time, make sure the lawn is taken care of, etc.
10. For the ladies, did you take birth control during deployment to prevent your period? Or did you just deal with it?
Sorry, can not answer that.
Any other tidbits you could share with me would be greatly appreciated! Thank you for your time.
You will need a power of attorney for who ever is taking care of your home, car, etc. This will allow them to work insurance companies, contractors if needed. Make sure it is someone you trust with your life. There has been some Soldiers who have been wiped out financially because of misuse of a power of attorney while they were deployed.

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jfratian, DNP, RN, CRNA · Jul 26, 2018

Yes, you can still move your GI bill to your kids/spouse as long as you haven't served more than 12 years yet. That's the new policy. Transferring the GI bill involves agreeing to serve more time, and the prevailing argument out there is that people who have served 12 years are largely going to stay in until retirement anyway...so there's no need to further incentivize them to stay.

Small plug here for staying connected while deployed. I highly recommend google's project Fi for deployed service members. The standard plan covers international data and texts at no additional charge. It includes Afghanistan and Iraq.

RayRN87 · Jul 27, 2018

I was in your situation not so long ago, so I will try my best to answer these questions but ditto to Jfratian's responses

1. If you work every other weekend at your regular job, and you drill one weekend a month, does that mean you only have one weekend free per month?

My employer/manager counts my drill weekend as a work weekend so I have 2 free weekends a month, but as an ICU nurse I don't mind working weekends especially on day shift (less traffic)

2. Do you plan to stick with it for 20+ years? Yes, I love the military environment, but I am working on an active duty packet so if it is not too late for you and you don't have children this would be a perfect opportunity to consider Active Duty (you can retire earlier with Active Duty Service)

3. Did you have difficulty transitioning back to your civilian job after returning from deployment? (I have never mobilized, it is for the most part voluntary in our unit because we are a backfill batallion. I have done training for 30 days and coming back to civilian job was not a problem)

4. Anyone have any regrets on joining? Anyone here love the reserves and would stay in it for as long as they can? Only regret is not going Active Duty from the start of my military career, but I have made many friends and mentors and enjoyed my 2 years as a Reservist

5. During drill weekends, are you working as a nurse or attending classes moreso? This is unit-dependent but no nurse work. We follow a training schedule and they give us allotted times for section training. So basically there is an ICU platoon, Auxillary Platoon, Med-surg platoon, etc.

6. I've never lived far away from my family. Being in the reserves would keep me close to them, but during deployment I am a little bit afraid of the homesickness aspect. Anyone want to share on their experience with that? My biggest struggle was leaving the family behind occasionally facetiming them helped, plus you will probably be too consumed with the duties and new environment that time will just fly

7. Is passing the GI bill along to your kids/future kids an option? Yes if you get deployed/mob for more than 90 days

8. Does drill weekend pay cause any financial hardship for you? I live in a state with a very high cost of living, and minusing one weekend a month of my civilian pay would make things slightly more difficult for me.

No it does not but drill weekend is less pay. But for me it is like a mental break from civilian life because I am doing non-nursing related things and more soldier oriented-tasks. My reserve unit pays for mileage and gives us a hotel to stay for drill weekend, but this is all dependent on budget and what unit you are in.

9. For the single people, who handles your finances/bills when you're on deployment? Do you rent out your home during that time? Or you just find a family member/friend to handle it for you? I don't want to burden anyone with those kinds of things. I guess I could find a property manager temporarily if I need to? I would stick with a family member to handle it, IMO

10. For the ladies, did you take birth control during deployment to prevent your period? Or did you just deal with it? N/A

Feel free to PM me if you have any more questions and best of luck

Dustystar · Aug 8, 2018

Thank you everyone for your responses! RayRN87, does your civilian employer schedule you on the weekday instead of your weekend, thereby giving you your full time hours for the week?

AnnaVet · Sep 18, 2019

On 7/27/2018 at 12:52 PM, RayRN87 said:
Hi I am unsure how to PM you, I have some questions regarding joining Reserve vs Active Duty. I am an RN with BSN for 5 years with no kids. Thanks
Anna