Favorite (navy) bases

jfratian, DNP, RN, CRNA · Nov 1, 2021

I would honestly pick bases in parts of the country/world that you want to explore. Patient acuity is always lacking in a military facility no matter where you go. Even the 'bigger hospitals' that take some civilians (Walter Reed, San Diego, San Antonio, etc) largely don't hold a candle to civilian trauma centers in major metro areas. Deployments may be different (although highly variable), but I would say high patient acuity is never a reason to join the military.

For me, your 1st and 2nd tier leadership (civilian equivalent of nurse manager and the nurse manager's boss) is what is ultimately going to make or break your experience. That stuff changes at least every 2 years so no way to predict.

jfratian, DNP, RN, CRNA · Nov 2, 2021

That was probably not the answer you were looking for. Military nursing is largely a lot like civilian nursing 80% of the time (working in a hospital or clinic taking care of patients). The other 20% are military specific training, exercises, and of course deployments to support combat operations somewhere.

A lot of things that make the military good or bad for each person in each location have to do with that other 20%. It's very difficult to predict what mission requirements will be for any one location at any one time. Me telling you that I really liked base X at time Y would probably be irrelevant for your future experience at base X at time Z...even if we are both doing the same jobs; there's different world events and different local leadership at Y vs Z.

The only constant I see are things to do outside of work in the local area. Wine country in CA is still there at time Y and Z. You can still ice climb in Alaska at time Y and Z. You get the gist. I think reading some travel websites for bases you are considering would be a better resource for you than anybody on this site.