Becoming an Air Force nurse

[Sferna]

I'll be applying for my BSN program in July and was thinking about joining the Air Force as a nurse upon graduation. I haven't spoken to a recruiter yet as from what I've heard they start to harass you about joining when you give them your information. Can anyone tell me how hard it is to become a nurse when you graduate? From what I've seen it looks very competitive.

My goal is to be a L&D nurse. Are these spots as limited as I'm assuming they are? If you get picked up for one specialty can you go into a different one over time? How often do nurses deploy? If there's anything you wish you had known before joining please share.

[jfratian, DNP, RN, CRNA]

Honestly, officer recruiters really don't harass you at all. If anything, you have to harass them to get any information from them. Yes, it's pretty competitive, but you can hedge your bets with ROTC. It's not too late to do ROTC; you only need to do 2 years of it and it would pretty much guarantee you a commission as a nurse when you graduate. If you do non-contract ROTC, you should be eligible for the air force health professions loan repayment program (HPLRP) to the tune of $40,000.

Yes, a limited number of new grad nurses do get to go straight into L&D/OB. I couldn't really tell you how hard it is to get that; I can tell you most new grads are put into inpatient med-surg.