Day in the life of an army nurse

zombie · Nov 15, 2009

Its like working in the civilian hospital with the chance of deployment. Your patients are active duty or dependants usually. Yeah you work in your ACU or in some units wear scrubs. It just depends. You live on or off base at govt expense. Usually work 12 hour shifts. again its unit dependant. If you work OR or PACU or something its more like 8hrs.. depends. As a new nurse you will work on a med surg floor and do a residency program at first which is i think 6 months.

Renee4christ · Nov 15, 2009

Hey, when are you graduating nursing school? I will go active duty when I finish nursing school in May 2010.

mstrawn2 · Nov 15, 2009

I am only a lowly sophamore so I won't graduate til spring of 2012. Can't wait!

keegs13 · May 25, 2010

I'm in the same situation, except I am headed to Army ROTC, I'm a senior in high school now... how did you like the Army ROTC in college?

mstrawn2 · May 25, 2010

I absolutely love it! My Cadre are wonderful and I have met some amazing guys and girls. We have class twice a week, lab once a week and PT three mornings a week. It takes a lot of time and effort (especially if you are terribly out of shape like I was!) but now I can't imagine my life without it! It would be so empty.

keegs13 · May 25, 2010

I have no doubts that PT will be difficult and people look at me like i'm crazy when i say that I am looking so forward to it.. i run 3-5 miles everyday, how much is it for PT? Sorry for all the questions, but you seem like a perfect person to ask because you're in the same boat, and I haven't come across many who can give me the answers I'm looking for. Did you go to LTC? and did you apply for the rotc scholarship?

Thank you so much!!

Keegs

mstrawn2 · May 25, 2010

Wellllllll PT is only an hour long, so we don't usually run 5 miles. Its the timing of your 2-mile that you want to worry about. You can look up the times for your age and stuff online (google APFT scores) and other days we focus on muscle groups for sit-ups and push-ups, which are also part of the test. It isn't actually that bad. I think it depends on your school a lot, and who designed the PT plan.

I am leaving for LTC in about 10 days. So excited, but way nervous. Should be good though. I hope to get a scholarship through that.

If you want to, I am on Facebook (Maria Justine Strawn) and would love to answer questions.

Maria

keegs13 · May 25, 2010

Oh my gosh thank you so much!! i'll add you on Facebook haha i have so many questions!! good luck at LTC!!!!

keegs13 · Jun 3, 2010

Thank you all for the help so far,

I am going to school for nursing, to achieve my BSN after 4 years in my school's nursing program, while I am enrolled in the nursing program at The University of Tennessee- Knoxville, I will be doing ROTC to become a nurse in the Army.

After my BSN, entry into the Army, and some years of experience, I would like to become a physician's assistant, again in the Army.

Does anyone know if it is possible to go to school to become a nurse, get a few years of experience with my BSN and then get more training in the Army to become a physician's assistant?

Thank you for the help, everyone!

Keegs

carolinapooh, BSN, RN · Jun 3, 2010

You'd more likely be sent back to be an NP, not a PA, although you could always apply for PA school and funding through the Army and see what happens.

Just curious - why not do the PA straight off?

just_cause, BSN, RN · Jun 3, 2010

yup, you need to be accepted into PA IPAP program (look at pre-reqs and timeline for it now..) and the key thing is you have to be released from your current branch will be nurse corp. They don't want to rob peter to pay paul.... but there is plenty of 2 years options to attend college for masters to become ARNP NP or CNS in the Army.

Caro, if poster is going to need to do nursing as he or she is in an rotc program and will have to meet that timeline obligation.