Camp Pendleton

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Hello,

Newish NCP'r here, headed to Camp Pendleton and was wondering if anyone could give me the skinny on the base/hospital/life in the area. The website for the hospital/nurses is limited in what it shares, so anyone with first hand experience would be just the ticket.

I'm particularly interested in finding out about specialty selection (as in, do we have selections, and if so - what?) - I have about 6 months prior cardiac experience civilian side and nearly a decade of enlisted military time. Finally got a dream sheet base - wasn't sure that was possible! :)

Looking forward to sand between my toes :)

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Specializes in Emergency Nursing (CEN).

HI Alkali! I'm headed to Camp Pendleton as well!! What is your tentative ODS date? I had San Diego on mine, and was offered Camp Pendleton and took it to stay West Coast. Do you have a family? You can PM me if you want! Glad there is someone else going there too! What's your grad date?

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I don't have enough posts to PM as of yet - but i'll be in the June or July ODS group.

Are you a new grad as well? I was wondering, with Camp Pendleton being a smaller hospital, whether there is as much 'range' for specialty selection.

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Congrats to both of you - exciting to know where you will be going. Not sure if you ran across this page, but I thought it provided a good summary of what the naval hospital offers:

https://cpen.med.navy.mil/nhcp.cfm?xid=wap&f=about

It looks like there is some cardiology and some other options. Though hopefully there will be a few who have experience there to chime in!

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Specializes in Critical Care Emergency Military Nursing.

Pendelton is very limited in what they can do there. There ICU is VERY small, even though the nurses there are all very capable they send most of the would be interesting cases to naval medical center san diego (NMCSD). They don't do any hearts there. They send many of there vented patients to NMCSD. I don't have any experience with any of the other dept's so I can't attest to what they can/can't do. Just remember that a HUGE naval hospital (NMCSD) is 45 minutes away and gets most of the interesting stuff. Sorry this isn't better news.

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Specializes in Emergency Nursing (CEN).

navyman7-

I'm hoping to get into L&D, what's your experience with people wanting to get into that area? Thanks for your info!

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Specializes in Critical Care Emergency Military Nursing.

Typically they have a huge need for L&D and general med/surg stuff. Good luck over there and enjoy the green side and long drive to the hospital, you'll see what I mean.

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Long drives...yuck :) But of course, being at any of the Big 3, I can't imagine it's much better to be honest.

Any info on OR, psych opportunities? I'm ok with anything really, but if I they offer...

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Specializes in Critical Care Emergency Military Nursing.

Alkali, there are more opportunities for psych than OR, but this can vary. As for the commute, it's not the drive to the base that sucks, it's the drive from the main gate to the hospital. It's actually not that bad if you are goint to NMCSD/Balboa.

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Thanks for taking the time to assist us navyman - much appreciated.

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