Civilian RN positions at San Diego Naval Medical Center

kcmylorn · Mar 13, 2012

Civilian contracts are being cut in most of the MTF's. I know in mine- we are being replaced by active duty.

marty1921 · Mar 15, 2012

I would not bother as a civilian you will be treated very badly by the young army nurses who have no respect for civilian nurses they will go behind your back at every opportunity to report the slightest infraction and relay are nurses in name only and do not seem to get the concept of nursing your pay will be half what you get in the civilian world and you will be expected to train those ungrateful nurses

Many of us civilian nurses leave as soon as we can.

kcmylorn · Mar 16, 2012

This is true- Most of the active duty nurses have 2-3 yrs floor experience at best, if they are lucky and get it if they were civilian nurses first before active duty. They are put and kept in the managerial positions.

I remember working many yrs ago with a ex-army nurse in a civilan hospital on our med/surg floor- she made so many mistakes, the aids hated her because all she did was chirp out orders and never lifted a finger for physical care. She ended up getting fired and had her License taken from her for a serious error. What a disaster. She tought we were all beneath her and she was on our turf.

navyman7 · Mar 20, 2012

I worked at Balboa and none of the civilian nurses acted like anything mentioned. Almost all of our civilian nurses get treated great. It all depends on what your personality is like. If you work hard and don't rely on your enlisted corpsmen to do your work you will be treated great and appreciated. And FYI Marty, Balboa is a Navy facility. The only Army folks there are the occasional army interns and army reservist doing there 2 weeks a year. No AD army nurses there.

Also the civililans that I worked with make close to if not more than 100k/year. That's much more that you can make as a new nurse at most facilities. Plus that's more than most AD nurses in the hospital unless you are a 04+.

You will have to snoop around to find out who does the hiring. They're still hiring people there, granted it has slowed down. It also helps if you know someone there who you can name drop. It's all about who you know sometimes.

As for the other comments, many of our civilians aren't prior military but some are. And most if not all work in the unit or on the floors somewhere. They save the managerial spots (division officers/dept heads) for the 0-3/0-4's and above. Our charge nurses are both civilian and military.

I loved working there, If I was you I would go for it. Good luck.

suzmquz · Mar 20, 2012

I have to agree with navyman7. I, too, worked at Balboa as a surgical tech (enlisted). We had a lot of civilian nurses and not only were they treated great, but it was a pleasure working with them. Because we worked in the OR, we had to have experienced civilian nurses. Like any where you go, there are going to be some bad apples and let me tell you I have seen my share in civilian hospitals.

It has been quite some time since I worked at Balboa, but at the time all of our OR nurses were staffed by HealthStaffers (?). Working at a military hospital is way different for all nurses in the fact (at least in navy facilities) the corpsman (which are equivilent to LVN's) do most of the work & work in all capacities of a hospital. I.e., blood draws, direct patient care in ICU, PACU, etc, etc., things we could never do in a civilian hospital).

The whole time I was there, never was a civilian in a managerial position. I have nothing but positive things to say. I say, forge ahead. Good luck to you.

sandiegoaaron · Jun 10, 2012

Hi folks, I'm a new grad, too. Appreciate the comments, Navyman (and others), but I think your 100k salary thought is off the mark. I'm thinking of applying to the Balboa Naval Hospital, too, and I met with the Nurse Recruiter (though she said that wasn't an official title) who was very nice and helpful. She said I'd likely be placed as a GS7 (I had no idea what this meant before google) based on my having a BSN and a GPA over 3.0. When I got home, the best I could determine (after an applied percentage, which is different for each state), I'd be paid around 50k. Not so great, but not so bad, either, I guess, depending on the added benefits. I don't know much about the benefits, but I've been told (vaguely) they're very good. But I'm also wondering about other "benefits". For example, is the training good and will I be put in good shape to eventually work at a civilian hospital? (I will not be one to have the corpman do all my work for me, for example, because I'd like to learn and also do my part/job). And what about other aspects ... I've thought of possibly becoming a Flight Nurse ... could I be put on some sort of fast-track to Flight Nurse training if I'm working at a military hospital instead of a civilian hospital? What about Nurse Anesthetist? Does the naval hospital have such a program, and available to civilian RNs? I'm not sure what I'd be elegible to enroll in or what "benefits" apply, since I'm a civilian and not actually in the navy. I'm confused about where the lines are drawn. Thanks very much for any input, the comments so far have been very helpful.

navyman7 · Jun 11, 2012

sandiegoaaron: i am the first to admit when i am wrong however i am not in this case. my coworkers were gs 11 & gs 12's, not gs 7's. typically a new grad won't get into the icu unless they were retired military and most likely a retired idc.

as for your other questions: you will be able to get your acls/pals/bls training for sure there. as for flight nursing, definately not. the navy has 1 flight nursing program where a rn can earn there wings and that is a 1 1/2 year billet unaccompanied to diego garcia. they don't do civilians in that case. same with crna. the navy has too many navy applicants to anesthesia school so they won't be sending civilians to that school. there a few civilians who get to do a masters program for something like a cns. but they too are very rare.

your role will be as a civilian working in a military hospital only. those are about the only similarities there are. sorry it's not more positive.