Army Reserves - Healthcare Professionals Loan Repayment Program

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Hello!

I am in my last semester of nursing school about to get my BS in nursing, and just found out today I was accepted into the Army Reserves (I had originally applied to go active duty but was essentially waitlisted because they had a limit on how many new nurses they would accept this year). I was wondering if anyone can tell me about the benefits about being in the reserves, especially what are the qualifications for the Healthcare Professionals Loan Repayment Program (HPLR). I have all federal loans, but read somewhere in these threads that the military defers them or something for a year, then pays the loan? Does this mean I need to be paying my loan until the army takes up the tab?

Also, it says that we get $10,000 a year, for up to 3 years. Is that all we get paid, or do we get monthly paychecks as well?

I'm kind of worried, because I will be getting a nursing job after I pass my NCLEX. I wish I could go active duty right away so I am not conflicted with having a 1-2 year contract with a hospital that I can't get out of. Any advice on this matter?

I'm very excited, and can't wait to be both a nurse and an officer in the army!

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Specializes in CVICU.

Since you were accepted to Reserves you will need to do your time with reserves. You can put in for a 368 request to transfer to AD when your in Reserves but thats a very long and slow process. You still also have to be accepted to go AD.

You get your loan payback after 1 year. I wasnt able to get it in defferment. They told me deferment only for AD. For me I got 20, 20, 10 over 3 years.

Your prolly better off taking your hospital job with contract cause by the time you go AD if you got accepted for fy 2012 wouldnt be till atleast spring 2012.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Thanks!

So do you think I should even bother joining the Reserves, or would it be better to turn it down and reapply to go AD in November?

Also, how do bonuses work when switching from reserves to AD?

I really wanted to make a career out of the army, but now I feel like I have a lot more questions than excitement because I'm not exactly sure how the Reserves work...I read in a few posts that there are no specialty classes for reservists, and that it's very hard to switch to AD...

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no bonuses to switch from reserve to AD... I'd do direct accession active duty if that was your overall goal unless you are worried about age or some other 'time' limitation....

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