ER nurse/new mom looking into joining Air Guard?

[x28y31]

Hi everyone. A little about me: I have been a nurse for around 3 years, have been an ER nurse for almost two years. I recently gave birth to a baby boy around 5 months ago and just now started working again PRN. My hubby is active duty air force. We are set to move bases within the next few months. I will be looking for new job opportunities in our new state. I want to continue being an ER nurse, but am interested in perhaps joining the Air Guard as a nurse and continue being a civilian nurse as well. I don't even know if this is possible. Does anyone have any information about this? I will talk to a recruiter soon if I continue to want to learn more about this opportunity. But thought I would ask on here first. Would I be able to do guard duties one weekend a month? Would these duties be nursing related? Because of my degree, would I have to go to any special training? Any general information would be great. I'm just trying to add a little more into my nursing career....but would still like the flexibility to raise my family and be with my son (and any future children). Thanks for any input. And sorry if I sound clueless. I know very little about the Air Guard and military.

[nurse2033, MSN, RN]

Have you looked other posts? There are many, many, threads on this subject. You can do this but it will be very difficult. A couple I know did it this way. They waited until one of them had their 20 and retired, then the other was able to join. The Air Force has the highest age limits for medical BTW, by far.

This could work for you if there is a Guard base near or at where you relocate to, and the Guard base has nursing jobs. But once your family moves again, will that still be the case? In your first year you will have to go away for training such as COT. Can you be away from your son? Good luck.

[jfratian, DNP, RN, CRNA]

You need a BSN from a U.S. nursing school to join. I'm not sure what your degree situation is. The max age is 47 I believe.

The whole point of guard or reserve is that you can continue your civilian career, so yes you can keep your ER job.

As others have stated, you are vulnerable to deploy for ~6 months at a time. Your initial officer training is 5 weeks long and is in Montgomery, AL.