Deployments

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My husband is leaving for OIS soon and we have been talking a lot about deployments and how we will handle it as a family (I'm a nurse too so we are concerned with how I will still work and raise the kids with him gone! We all know that we don't work nice 9-5 jobs where daycare is an option! haha!).

I was just curious (and I'm sure many others are too!) for all the current militarty nurses on here:

1. How many times have you been deployed?

2. For how long?

3. How long had you been in the military before you were deployed?

4. What is your specialty (ICU, ER, Med-Surg..)

5. What branch are you in?

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Specializes in L& D, High Risk Antepartum.

It really depends on your specialty. I work OB and I will probably not deploy the whole time I am at San Diego. My husband on the other hand will be heading to Kuwait in the fall for 6 months. He is a mental health nurse. He will have been at the command a year when he deploys. The med surg nurses are maintaining a waiting list right now to deploy. THe ER, OR, and ICU nurses are like the mental health nurses they go go go.

There are a huge number of factors involved though. The biggest driver at this command is the skill set you have.

ENS R

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Specializes in ER, TICU, OR.

I was selected into Army and received orders for OBLC for March 08 and then to Tripler in HI working in their ER I have an M5 identifier what are my chances for deployment? Any information would be helpful. Thank you.

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Specializes in OB, Cardiac.
It really depends on your specialty. I work OB and I will probably not deploy the whole time I am at San Diego. My husband on the other hand will be heading to Kuwait in the fall for 6 months. He is a mental health nurse. He will have been at the command a year when he deploys. The med surg nurses are maintaining a waiting list right now to deploy. THe ER, OR, and ICU nurses are like the mental health nurses they go go go.

There are a huge number of factors involved though. The biggest driver at this command is the skill set you have.

ENS R

so the medsurg nurses are trying to go but have to wait?

if you work OB can you still request to do a deployment to the desert?

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Specializes in L& D, High Risk Antepartum.

Yes, Med Surg nurses are waiting in line to deploy because it makes you more competive to go to the ED or ICU.

If you are OB you can ask to deploy on humanitarian missions like the Mercy or a few gray top missions. You can ask to go to IRAQ but you would not be the priority as someone with a Med surg, ICU, ER, and Mental Health background. There are not a bunch of babies being born in the desert. That is what it is like at the command I am at but at a different command it may be different.

Allison

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Specializes in ER, Trauma, US Navy.

Kelly-

Nowadays in the Navy all nurses are expected to be "generalist" nurses. kind of the crosstrainer of nurses, can do anything, anywhere? At least that's the thought process at the Admiral level. you still get to "specialize," but it means a little less than it used to. With the operational tempo so high, they mainly need nurses, LOTS of OJT.

LCDR Dan

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Specializes in OB, Cardiac.

thanks guys. i def have my heart set on ob but would love to deploy to iraq during my 1st yr. my husband will be back home finishing up his degree in radtech anyhow. since we'll be separated regardless, i would love to just go over there & help serve those troops. i've heard that odds are i will get put on a medsurg floor my 1st yr anyhow. i hope since i'm prior & have already been to kuwait they'll be more apt to deploy me out there sooner. but first, i have to get in!!!!!! :)

when's the soonest you have heard of a new nurse grad going to the desert?

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Specializes in L& D, High Risk Antepartum.

At San Diego not in the first year. You have to have training first. If you come here it really depends on what is open at the time.

Allison

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Specializes in OB, Cardiac.

thanks guys. i def have my heart set on ob but would love to deploy to iraq during my 1st yr. my husband will be back home finishing up his degree in radtech during my 1st yr in. since we'll be separated regardless, i would love to just go over there & help serve those troops. i've heard that odds are i will get put on a medsurg floor my 1st yr anyhow. i hope since i'm prior & have already been to kuwait they'll be more apt to deploy me out there sooner. but first, i have to get in!!!!!! :)

when's the soonest you have heard of a new nurse grad going to the desert?

also, do nurses have to get qualified on weapons every yr? or is it just when you're going to deploy somewhere you will be carring a weapon? i heard nurses generally carry 9mm, is this true? i'm going to practice in a civilian range as much as possible so i can get expert. i never got expert on the M16 & to this day it kinda bugs me (especially since my husband's expert on everything he's shoot. he makes more music in his dress uniforms than me!!!:)

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