Best Navy Hospital for Critical Care

[Jp307925]

Hi,

My name is Jonathan and I'm an RN,BSN in the neurotrauma ICU at a level 1 trauma center in Houston. I love the excitement of taking care of such high acuity patients, and would like to do so while serving my country. As such, I'm applying for the Navy Nurse Corps. I will be testing for my CCRN certification once I am eligible in October. If I can, I'd like to go straight into the ICU in the Nurse Corps.

My recruiter is very helpful, but I know you have to take what they tell you with a grain of salt.

She said that once you have your CCRN cert, when your application is accepted, you're guaranteed an ICU position. This almost sounds too good to be true. I've heard/read countless times that ultimately, you go where you're needed the most, whether it be ICU, med-surg, or L&D (no thank you!). Does anybody know if her statement is accurate?

Also, when the time comes to make my dream sheet, I plan on listing the big 3 in order of the highest acuity/me having the best chance of getting directly into the ICU. She said San Diego was by far the best choice, followed by Bethesda, and then Portsmouth. Anyone agree/disagree?

Thank you in advance for your help, and I look forward to reading your responses.

Jonathan

[Lunah, MSN, RN]

Yep, it may be the only Level 1 Army hospital now. I believe Landstuhl just lost its Level 1 designation in May -- they didn't have the numbers to support it any longer. Madigan (Ft. Lewis) is a Level 2. Hmmmm. Yep, might just be SAMMC!

[Pikake]

Tripler is a level 3.

[donteyeballme]

I worked at Bethesda's ICU from 2007-2009 and they do have really sick OIF/OEF patients that come from Germany, usually 3 days or less post injury. To answer your question, the best Navy hospital for critical care would be Naval Hospital Guam. They treat everyone there, civilians, VA, and military since they are only 1 of 2 hospitals on island. You will see things there that you will never see in any military hospital in the states. However, going to the ICU is not guaranteed. Its all about the needs of the command. I seen them put CCRNs in L&D for 6 months before coming to the ICU, but when I was leaving Guam, 5 ICU nurses came within 2 months of each other and all of them went to the ICU.