Day in your life - help a student decide :D

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Hello there,

A little about me, I spent 4 years from 2002-2006 as Security Forces in the active duty Air Force and went AF Guard thereafter to pursue my education. I'm currently in a very good associate degree program at the local community college and plan to get my BSN immediately upon graduation / NCLEX.

I want to know what a day as a NURSE for you active duty military side is like as you can guess, it's what i'd like to do! :D I know each service is different and am willing to try any but i'm interested in knowing your nurse to patient ratios, whether your military patients can refuse meds and tx, whether your boss's back you up if you're in the right versus pure pt pleasing (sounds bad but ive seen RNs nearly lose their job over their lack of pt 'finesse' :D ), whether you have to tolerate inappropriate tantrums by family members, and also if you take care of retiree's while at your home station.

Part of what i'm hoping for is that they do not tolerate harassment from patients or their families. I am hoping military nurses are not the 'doormats' they can unfortunately become in the civilian world (you deserve a medal those that are forced to!:bow::bow:)

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Hello there,

A little about me, I spent 4 years from 2002-2006 as Security Forces in the active duty Air Force and went AF Guard thereafter to pursue my education. I'm currently in a very good associate degree program at the local community college and plan to get my BSN immediately upon graduation / NCLEX.

I want to know what a day as a NURSE for you active duty military side is like as you can guess, it's what i'd like to do! :D I know each service is different and am willing to try any but i'm interested in knowing your nurse to patient ratios, whether your military patients can refuse meds and tx, whether your boss's back you up if you're in the right versus pure pt pleasing (sounds bad but ive seen RNs nearly lose their job over their lack of pt 'finesse' :D ), whether you have to tolerate inappropriate tantrums by family members, and also if you take care of retiree's while at your home station.

Part of what i'm hoping for is that they do not tolerate harassment from patients or their families. I am hoping military nurses are not the 'doormats' they can unfortunately become in the civilian world (you deserve a medal those that are forced to!:bow::bow:)

I am kind of curious to see the future replys to all this myself..

I am not in the military but:

I would say forced medications and forced treatment are used in very, very, very limited times usually needing more than one doctors signature and sometimes the input/sign off from the ethics team..

I would think in the military such things as AMA and disruptions of hospital function would be frowned on more so than in the civilian world. Still I would believe there may not be that "big" of a difference...

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Specializes in critical care: trauma/oncology/burns.

Hello All:

Have worked in the civilian side of the world

Now at Fort Bliss and WBAMC so can only describe Army. And let me start off by saying I am very impressed with the professional conduct, attitude, competency and advocacy that makes up the staff at WBAMC. THAT is the reason I wanted to be an Army Nurse when I grew up!!

Some of the differences that you will encounter working as an Army Nurse:

You will be taking care of Active Duty and their family members, Retired or Prior Service members, Reservists on TDY. A patient can refuse treatments, medications; can fire their physician and even request that a particular nurse not take over their care. RARELY see that in an Army Hospital or Medical Center. Remember, if you are AC you are "government property" if you will and you basically can not refuse, say a CT Scan if your physician deems it necessary

I must say have not yet witnessed a patient "going off the deep end", as I stated above majority of patients are AC and/or their family are military families so they are used to dealing with Army way of thinking, of behaving. Rank does have its privleges and some civilians are not used to all the "Ma'ams" and "Sirs" being bandied about. And if there were a problem with a patient or with family dynamics there are always the MPs or the Hospital/Federal Police.

I work with a lot of government contract workers but they can avail themselves of the same Military chain of command

Civilian makes a major medication error, for example, they will get fired.

Military makes a major medication error, Article 15

Civilian has a say in their schedule, Military no

Civilian can work OT, Military no such thing as OT

Civilian gets time and a half for working Holidays, Military no

{Military does get Training Holidays}

Civilian does not need to adhere to the Military Code so when that Clock strikes quitting time civilian can leave even if there is something going on in the unit, Military no

Civilian can wear any type of pretty scrubs, Military no

Military Chief Nurse/NM/Head Nurse will roll up her/his ACU sleeves and jump in when it gets really crazy busy....My experience with civilian Head Nurses: NO

Civilian can stay as long as they like, Military PCS every three years

Military must continue to meet their height/weight standards and pass PT twice/year, civilian no

Military get deployed, civilian no

Civilian can refuse an assignment, Military no

I am sure others can add to this list.

deftonez188 good luck with your decision!

athena

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It 'sounds' scary, but being prior/current service - it's understood. Now just to pick a branch >:D Hats off to you Army folk :bow:

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