I've long considered joining the military as a nurse. My dad was an Army officer and I greatly respect those that serve. I am starting a BSN program in January and will graduate in 12/2010. Anyway, I never looked too far into this because I am married with children. I have heard that this may not be an issue and I'm wondering what other people's experience is. I would appreciate any information and/or opinions you have to offer.
Thank you!
Tiffany
Edited to add: I would also like to know what questions to make sure I ask when I speak with recruiters.
You may have gotten a few of my posts mixed up. I did say that the Navy was paying for my tuition and I got my salary, but that is for Grad school, my Master's. I've been in the Navy for 10 years and competed to get my current program, DUINS, guess they figured I was worth it. Nonetheless, I owe them another 4 years for paying for it. I did the NCP program when I came in in '97 and it was as you described. I got a sign-on bonus plus about $1000/ month, less taxes, that can be put toward whatever you want, I put it towards school. In the end, after taxes, I got about $17,500 from the Navy for my last 2 years of school, once I graduated, I owed them 5 years. With that in mind, I still had to take out school loans to finish paying for my undergrad as well and still paying them off. As far as your situation, once you start school again, you can defer your current school loans which will alleviate that bill. Once you graduate, because you will be active duty, you can defer all your loans for an additional 3 years, I believe, that's what I did until we got better established. There may be other military programs out there to get into nursing, but none that I know of that are going to give you a free ride, unless you go to one of the academies and they don't have nursing as a major. As far as demanding more, the NCP program is what it is, you're not going to get them to give you something more. I heard recently of something called the Nurse Development Program, not sure what it is, actually heard about it on here, not from work. Not even sure it's a real program, but something you may want to question the recruiter about. As far as why nurses love the NCP so much, it does give you a sizeable chunk of money you don't have, you don't have to pay the money back, and you're guaranteed a job when you graduate. For me that was enough, you're situation may be different. Probably not what you want to hear, but that's how the program works, sorry.
DanznRN, RN
441 Posts
KD-
You may have gotten a few of my posts mixed up. I did say that the Navy was paying for my tuition and I got my salary, but that is for Grad school, my Master's. I've been in the Navy for 10 years and competed to get my current program, DUINS, guess they figured I was worth it. Nonetheless, I owe them another 4 years for paying for it. I did the NCP program when I came in in '97 and it was as you described. I got a sign-on bonus plus about $1000/ month, less taxes, that can be put toward whatever you want, I put it towards school. In the end, after taxes, I got about $17,500 from the Navy for my last 2 years of school, once I graduated, I owed them 5 years. With that in mind, I still had to take out school loans to finish paying for my undergrad as well and still paying them off. As far as your situation, once you start school again, you can defer your current school loans which will alleviate that bill. Once you graduate, because you will be active duty, you can defer all your loans for an additional 3 years, I believe, that's what I did until we got better established. There may be other military programs out there to get into nursing, but none that I know of that are going to give you a free ride, unless you go to one of the academies and they don't have nursing as a major. As far as demanding more, the NCP program is what it is, you're not going to get them to give you something more. I heard recently of something called the Nurse Development Program, not sure what it is, actually heard about it on here, not from work. Not even sure it's a real program, but something you may want to question the recruiter about. As far as why nurses love the NCP so much, it does give you a sizeable chunk of money you don't have, you don't have to pay the money back, and you're guaranteed a job when you graduate. For me that was enough, you're situation may be different. Probably not what you want to hear, but that's how the program works, sorry.
LCDR Dan