AD Navy nurse here, and I want to tell it to you all straight. Keep in mind these are my opinions, not the Navy's.
Overall, I see many people asking about benefits, minor details, can I go here, do this, yadda yadda bla bla, and I have to give you all a word of warning. Do not join any branch or part of the military for the benefits, pay, lifestyle, etc.
-The pay and all that is not worth it. You are expected to literally be on call 24/7, and I am not joking. This is not my hospital's policy, this is NAVY POLICY. That means when you are asleep because you are on night shift and they call you in the middle of the day, you must answer and come into to do whatever stupid thing they make you do, or else you'll get a good chewing-out.
-30 days of leave? HA! Good luck getting the leave when you want it, and when you do get it, it may very well be arbitrarily rescheduled and you'll lose your airline tickets (seen it happen twice already).
-You better check your earning statement extremely well, because if the government overpays you (happens all the time), they will underpay you accordingly on the next pay check, regardless if you have bills to pay (this is happening to two of my corpsman, they got paid only $400 one month).
-You will come in on many of your off days. We work Wed-Thur one week, then Mon Tue Fri Sat Sun the next week. For example this week I had to come in on Monday and Tuesday for collaterals, work wednesday and thursday night, then stay until 11AM for training on Friday, and I may get called in to work this weekend if one of our civilians calls in sick (bug is going around). Next week I will literally be at the hospital every day, Monday through Sunday. On my two off days I have numerous items to attend to. And you know what? I just suck it up. Everyone here does. Many fellow navy nurses are miserable, simply because they joined because they thought this or that and didn't consider that you will sacrifice an immense degree of personal freedom to serve our nation.
The point I am making is that one must join simply out of the desire to serve. I love the Navy, but it kinda sucks sometimes. It's supposed to suck - it's the military. Know what I mean?
If you want to proudly serve your nation by putting on the uniform, working hard everyday for your sailors marines dependents and retirees, at other times risking life or limb, or even dying for your country (see: 2 nurses killed in Iraq), then go for it. Otherwise go work for Christus St. John's.
Glad someone else's experience have been different. Just like you can post your good experience, I can post my bad experience. I posted my experience on what the army has been like, I have the right to do that. I'm not going to sugar-coat anything. If I had to do it again, I would definitely stay in the civilian world. Patient care and management is not the same in the military from my view point. So people like myself who thought things were going to be greener on this side, it's not, so just think about it.
Again, I could care less about your assessment, your military which equals typical to judge and try to cast stones. I'm working on my MSN so let that burn you up some more. I've had around 3 head nurses since joining, 2 was lost to ETSing. The last nurse commander call was about the retention level of nurses in the army. They can't figure out why after the initial commitment, many nurses are leaving. Think these nurses are getting out of the army because they don't like nursing? Maybe since your so judgmental, maybe you should get out of nursing. Again, your just upset because I dared to say anything negative about you all beloved army. I'm sure I can go pull up old post on you all that keep following me around the forums, but quite frankly I have a life and I really can't be bothered.
Like I said in one of my previous post, people aren't allowed to share their bad experiences about the military on this forum because you have people like (insert your name here) who will spend the whole day to find old posts or create a flame war over someone's experience. Many people like myself stop posting here after getting in the military, because we know if you aren't saying how great life is in the military then (insert your name here) will make sure to try and tell you that it's because you don't like nursing. Thanks for the PM's!!!
What is a commander call? If you are scheduled off are you restricted on leaving the area? I guess I am not fully understanding the concept of being oncall all the time, maybe I missed the fine print somewhere..
Commander's call is just a meeting called by a squadron, group, or wing commander. It's usually called when something's about to happen, like some big inspection or to give staff the results of a big inspection. Usually it's mandatory unless you're TDY or on leave. Most of the time you have at least a few days notice, but sometimes you don't. I'm not totally sure how it works if you decide to take a long trip away from home on your scheduled day off and they all of a sudden schedule a commanders call. I guess in that instance, you just go up the chain for guidance. That's one of those other bad parts...not everything is in black and white. There's an exception for just about anything! :)
Basically, as far as being "on-call" you just have to be aware that if something happens, you could be called in whether you have plans or have gotten enough sleep, or whatever. If the unit is short a nurse because someone is on quarters, they can call you in, and you really can't say no. Then there's that part about anything bad happening in the world and readiness needs to deploy a group of people, you may not get much notice. We had a group of people that went to Chile, and they only got 24 hours, and some of them weren't even in their "bucket" to deploy. It's just something that most military members always have in the back of their minds. It's better to know it could happen, and hope that it doesn't!
Dee, like you state you can post all the negative things you like. But remember I also have the right to state what I feel and seen after 20+ years in the military and 25+ years in the medical field starting as a EMT. Readers of these post need to read both sides of the issue. Don't worry I really do not care if you like the Army or not. I just want anyone reading post about the military that there are alot of people who like it.
I can not help that you do not like ideas to maybe would help you with your situtation. All I have done is suggested that you look deep down inside and see why you are unhappy.
Nurses leaving after their ADSO is no different then enlisted leaving after their initial enlistment.
I wish you the best in your future endevors.
By the way have you had the chance to deploy yet?
Remember the grass is not always greenier on the other side, be it military or civilian.
I see alot of discussion on this topic refers to active military. I am considering the reserves as an RN. Anyone have any advise/insight on this?
For the most part the reserves is the 2 days a month 2 weeks a year. But you need to investigate the unit you will be joining. There will be some months where you do 4-6 days of drills and other months when you will not drill at all. Most Army reserve units are on a 5 year rotation cycle which means every 5 years the unit can be activited either as a unit or as individual. But I was in one Army reserve unit were it was a 1:1 schedule.
If you have not decided on a service yet I would suggest that you meet with a healthcare recruiter from all 3 services. Also, find some reserve nurses from your area and speak with them.
For those on the fence about joining - the truth usually lies somewhere in the middle. I would like to think that is where my outlook lies as well; an inspiring optimism with a healthy dose of realism. The reason I originally started this was because I have seen numerous Navy nurses and corpsman do all they can to avoid deployment and shirk responsibilities on the unit. It is my thought that these people joined for the wrong reasons, and they asked too many of the questions that I see posted here - things like "how soon will I get a pay raise," and "how much bonus money can I get for doing X number of years." While those are all valid questions, they should be relatively unimportant in the larger scheme.
You know what I asked when I was joining? Things like "what kind of stuff do I get to do in bootcamp?" and "What kind of cool things will I get to do on deployment, how soon can I deploy, and what kind of interesting places will I visit?" I haven't been disappointed in those regards one bit. I feel like I joined for the right reasons. I will most likely transition from active to reserve for the right reasons as well. Not because I hate being in the Navy, or because I do not want to work (quite the contrary, I assure you); rather, because there is more still yet waiting for me and my career out there in this still yet wonderful land of opportunitiy.
For you long time vets: Respect. Enough said.
For those fellow JO's out there: I feel ya, but let's just do our part to stay positive and motivated until it's time to decide.
And lastly, for those potential future coworkers: if your reasons are right, please come on in and help make military medicine even better. But if your reasons are wrong, do me and you and favor, and don't sign on the line.
For those on the fence about joining - the truth usually lies somewhere in the middle. I would like to think that is where my outlook lies as well; an inspiring optimism with a healthy dose of realism.
For you long time vets: Respect. Enough said.
For those fellow JO's out there: I feel ya, but let's just do our part to stay positive and motivated until it's time to decide.
And lastly, for those potential future coworkers: if your reasons are right, please come on in and help make military medicine even better. But if your reasons are wrong, do me and you and favor, and don't sign on the line.
I have to agree with everyone on here. I guess we all have our life lessons. If I had to offer any advice, it would be to not believe ONE WORD anybody in your direct chain tells you. I have been yanked around, lied to, misled, dumped on by every chain I have had (I have been in for 12 years) all for the sake of their own promotion chasing. The AMEDD branch will lie and sell their children to get to that next rank at the expense of YOUR family. So my advice .. STAY AWAY FROM THE ARMY! (and yes- I hope somebody higher up than myself reads this and knows that the nurses in the Army are getting let down by their commands!)
Also, dont be to quick for your M5 or 8A identifier. It pigeon holes you and sets you up for failure!
jeckrn, BSN, RN
1,868 Posts
Well said