Emergency/Trauma Nursing in USAF

Editorial Team / Moderator · Jun 10, 2016

Good morning! I have moved your post to the government/military forum to ensure maximum responses. Good luck on your application! It can be a long process, also known as "hurry up and wait." :)

jfratian, DNP, RN, CRNA · Jun 11, 2016

I take it you're an experienced civilian ER Nurse? Biggest difference between civilian and military is the additional duties and the deployments. Deployments really aren't happening much these days.

While a handful of bases have trauma centers, the vast majority of military ERs are closer to urgent cares. To me, the daily grind of the military ER nurse seems pretty mundane. It's a lot of sick call and "The clinic wasn't open." To me the military is a step down in acuity not a step up. Obviously the deployed setting is different.

Editorial Team / Moderator · Jun 11, 2016

While a handful of bases have trauma centers, the vast majority of military ERs are closer to urgent cares. To me, the daily grind of the military ER nurse seems pretty mundane. It's a lot of sick call and "The clinic wasn't open."

That's what I always hear, but not quite what I experienced. I reminded myself that we "just see clinic patients" as I scrambled to get an ectopic to the OR or transfused a syncopal GI bleeder or tried to resuscitate an infant. Gee, some clinic! I and a friend and coworker who came to us from a Level 1 would actually make sarcastic "clinic patients!" comments at each other as we busted our butts. We had a very very experienced ER physician almost refuse to come back because she was handed the "clinic patient" line and then got her ass handed to her with multiple critical patients. Not what she expected! Lol.

Our inpatient acuity was low, yes â€” because we stabilized and shipped out the sick ones from the ER.

Is it critical care every shift? No. But our population has its own unique flavor that can generate some very sick people. Is it deployment quality? Heck no â€” been there, done that, and even my time at a Level 1 didn't compare to my FST experiences. But I think we do some of these ERs a disservice by saying they're little more than clinics. That is from my my Army perspective, anyway. Maybe Air Force is different.

jfratian, DNP, RN, CRNA · Jun 11, 2016

Maybe urgent care is a bit of an exaggeration. However, I find that when people join the military expecting the day-to-day grind to be a major step-up in acuity are often disappointed. I know that I was. However, I came to find out that there were other aspects, such as the training/education, leadership, and travel opportunities, that I really like.

I just want to make sure that people join for the right reasons. I don't want to have disappointed co-workers.

Editorial Team / Moderator · Jun 11, 2016

Maybe urgent care is a bit of an exaggeration. However, I find that when people join the military expecting the day-to-day grind to be a major step-up in acuity are often disappointed. I know that I was. However, I came to find out that there were other aspects, such as the training/education, leadership, and travel opportunities, that I really like.
I just want to make sure that people join for the right reasons. I don't want to have disappointed co-workers.

I gotcha, and I can understand that. I think if you said that a majority of our ERs are more along the lines of community-hospital-type ERs vs. trauma centers, that would be more accurate. It's funny - I was chatting with a civilian OB at our Army hospital who told me he came to work there expecting "military = fit and healthy patients," but he quickly learned that the family members can be very, very unhealthy people.

JmanRN80 · Jun 13, 2016

Well thanks for the heads up. I work in 2 ER's now, 1 a level II trauma and the other a community ER. I work in very impoverish areas so I see all the common health disparities of unhealthy choices, and violence at the same time. I just want to join to explore different regions, to expand my career and experiences.. I figured it was not going to be to different if state side, but I am sure that might change with deployment also.

Thank you!