Civilian to AF Nurse

[LadyShelton90]

Hello,

I have been a licensed nurse since 2014. However, my spouse is an AD member which made it a bit hard for me to get floor experience as we were overseas. I was able to get about 6 months med-surg experience, then worked as an RN case manager, and now I am currently back in the states working on an ICU unit for the past three months, which has always been my dream unit! That being said, I have have considered becoming an AD AF nurse for some time and have even spoke to recruiters who pretty much blew me off. My question is pretty simple what is the experience required to join as a CC nurse? If I joined as any other type, say med-surg how hard is it to later on get back to critical care? How soon is it suggested that I begin the process? What is the process to becoming an AD AF nurse start to finish? Any information you all could offer would be greatly appreciated and would assist me in speaking with a recruiter again.

[jfratian, DNP, RN, CRNA]

You need 1 year of full time, consecutive ICU experience to join the AF as an ICU nurse. You likely aren't an attractive new grad applicant (i.e. med-surg and the like) due to your long gaps in work experience since graduation. I think with a full year of ICU experience under you belt and your CCRN, you'd be a much stronger applicant.

The AF is highly specialized. It is not like civilian nursing at all, and you can't just bounce around from specialty to specialty. You likely would have to work several years in med-surg to switch to something else.

[LadyShelton]

I was thinking it would probably be a year. Any idea how long the application process takes or when I should start trying to get the ball rolling?

If that is the case I definitely want to stick to my ICU route. I don't want to be stuck in a specialty when I already know where I belong.

[jfratian, DNP, RN, CRNA]

The minimum application time is 6 months. Depending on needs, there may only be one application cycle per year. Have you gone on the AF website, used the 'find a recruiter' link, and selected the 'healthcare professional' option?

Just so you're 100% aware, you should know that deployment tempo is way down right now. When not deployed, most military ICUs have very low acuity and are more akin to stepdown units. I don't find that people that join for a step-up in acuity are very happy.