Experience needed for reserves

Corvette Guy · May 12, 2006

I would like to know if my most recent experience as a Public Health Nurse would in any way affect my ability to do Army Reserve nursing? I have worked as a NICU and PICU nurse for 6 years but that ended 7 years ago. Do the weekend duties allow for refreshing of skills? This is the only drawback to me joining the reserves and I haven't been able to verify is this would be a problem or not. Any help would be appreciated.

What exactly are you asking? Have you not been doing nursing for the past seven years?

If your wanting to do NICU in the Army Nurse Corps you will most likely have to settle for an Adult ICU at an Army Medical Center that also does Peds. Therefore, you'd want to be a Critical Care RN in the Army Nurse Corps.

If assigned to a CSH Unit in the Reserves you will most definitely not get any type of refresher nurse training. However, you could possibly enter the Army Nurse Corps in the Reserves as a 66H [Med-Surg RN]. Then, request the Critical Care Nurse Course [CCNC], provided by the Army Medical Dept. Nursing Division, to gain the 8A additional skill identifier to become a critical care nurse in the Army Nurse Corps. BTW, I'm in the CCNC right now and one of the course modules is pediatrics.

Have you contacted an Army Health Care Recruiter? Anyway, take a look at this link Army Nurse Corps Specialties

windyviews · May 12, 2006

Thank you for the response. I have been doing Public Health Nursing since being out of the hospital. Although I haven't kept up with certain skills used only in the hospital setting, I haven't forgotten how to do them. I would just like some time to reacquaint myself with procedures. The unit I'd be with is an Area Support Medical Batallion. I have spoken with the recruiter at length but they do not have a nurse recruiter for this unit. I'm wondering if I should request visiting them on a weekend so that I can have my questions answered. Also, the additional Army training that you mentioned would be great.