Army vs Air force nursing

Jack245 · Mar 18, 2012

As someone who isn't a member of our military, but has several friends and family in almost every branch, here's the basic thing they told me.

Army + Marines = You are a soldier first, your chosen specialty second (Nursing) in the event of a crisis.

Air force + Navy = You are your specialty first (nursing) and a soldier when the need arises.

Hope that's helpful.

midinphx, BSN · Mar 19, 2012

I was army before - line side enlisted, not medical. Now I'm an AF nurse. There are some things better and worse about both branches. I miss some things in the army, but like some things better in AF. I chose AF this time because I thought they had better living conditions. But that just doesn't matter in my daily life as I live off base. I work at a combined AF and army hospital. We nurses at the bedside work so well together. There is no tension or fighting with the military nurses. We do the same job. We do jump through different hoops to meet our non-nursing military duties. Deployments are different between the 2 branches unless it is a joint tasking. AF is still enjoying 6 month deployments, the army just announced 9 month deployments - but who knows what the future holds. Living conditions on deployments are different from my small experience. I saw that the AF has much better conditions - but that is not guaranteed.

Basically, either way is a great choice. Good luck.

Courbsh17 · Mar 19, 2012

Is there a branch that is seen to have given you a better experience or have better opportunities?

midinphx, BSN · Mar 24, 2012

Choosing a branch is a very personal choice. They all have good and bad experiences. And their opportunities are different depending on your area of work and what your station's mission is. Where I'm at the AF ICU deploys a lot, but the army here don't deploy as much. The army runs the burn unit here and have a specific mission to transport burn patients in flight. but the AF has CCATT which is basically ICU flight transport. There are loads of things you can do. I think experiences are what you make of them and always pursuing more and varied things.

FNPdude74 · Mar 25, 2012

Army is like jack of all trades. I'm air force active duty and never touched a gun yet until deployment time.

Courbsh17 · Mar 25, 2012

Army is like jack of all trades. I'm air force active duty and never touched a gun yet until deployment time.

So do you mean you would rather have done army?

FNPdude74 · Mar 25, 2012

So do you mean you would rather have done army?

Well not really as of right now since I got into the USAF already and my mind is brainwashed into the air force culture :) I've always been with air force in jrotc, ROTC, and now here I am. You can always be attached to a army unit if you go air force. In terms of deployment, I feel the thought of "air force doesn't deploy as much as army" is false because it depends what your specialty is and also what base you're at. Certain bases deploy more than others depending on the need. Surgical units tend to deploy for longer periods than medical units. Also, it is true however, that army units deploy for longer periods than air force but due to force reduction, more air force units are being deployed for the same time as army units because of that whole joint force with the army thing as we were back in WW2 which the air force was the army air corps.

midinphx, BSN · Mar 26, 2012

I think that figuring out what your goal is and what kind of nursing you want to do would help direct your way as to what branch would fit you better.

ImThatGuy, BSN, RN · Mar 27, 2012

I don't know a lot about the military particularly nurses in the military. However, the air force has had to cut back on several thousand officers, and nurses are officers. Something to consider. Even the .mil downsizes.

Courbsh17 · Mar 27, 2012

I would like to get into critical care nursing eventually. Right now I am working on a medical/surgical unit part time. I am curious if I continue to do medical surgical nursing if they could train me in the army or air force to be an ICU nurse. Still, I am unsure which one I would want to join. My feelings keep going towards the army but a lot of people tell me air force would be better. I'm not sure if I should continue to go with my gut feelings (even if its wrong) or do what people say is better from their experiences. Thanks for your input, keep them coming :-)

midinphx, BSN · Mar 27, 2012

Both AF and army have ICU fellowship programs that you can apply for after you've been a med/surg nurse for a couple years. They used to do both branches together, but the army moved off to have an ICU/ER nurse fellowship. I'm not sure how I feel about that since I've done both specialities and can guarantee not all great ER nurses are cut for ICU and vice versa.

When someone tells you the AF is better, ask why??! I was army enlisted but was under the misperception that AF would be better than army as a nurse. I thought they had better living conditions - but we live off base and it just doesn't matter in daily life. As enlisted, the AF has much better dormitories vs army barracks. But so what? AF is the least militant of the services, not necessarily a great thing in my opinion.