Meeting C/ Air Force Nurse Recruiter

Nurses General Nursing

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Hi. I have an Air Force nurse recruiter coming to see me on Monday morning and just thought I would post to get any information on Air Force/military nursing I could before he came. Any info will do but I'm wondering can I choose surgery or OR or CCU or do they assign where you will go? Will they train you to become a CRNA? Do you wear a uniform to work? Is it the same kind of scheduling as civilian hospitals-q other w/e, ect? Is the pay comparable to civilian pay? I've been an RN for 8 months on a surgical cardio-thoracic step down unit and am not so sure that I like the civilian hospital setting. Any information is welcomed and appreciated.

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BTW, if things escalate and materialize overseas I would be more than willing and happy to go help in any way they ask me to. It's part of the reason I'm considering joining.

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I

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There is a similar thread on the Student Board that you may find helpful. I just left the active duty 9 months ago, and if you need any more info please email me.

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I'm an Army Nurse in Australia and I reckon if I had my time again I'd have seriously considered joining the RAAF instead!! They get a lot more opportunity for professional advancement than I do and get a lot of the good jobs without a lot of the crappy ones that often go hand in hand with the Army.

Out of our 3 armed services, the RAAF is the only one that offers regular theatre (OR) courses, whilst the Army concentrates more on the AnE (ER) disciplines. Opportunities to travel the world are fairly level (I've had 2 active service deployments and an exchange to the UK in 3 years, some of my RAAFy friends are at 1 and 1). The primary differences for us, however, are related to our corps job.......Army goes out into the weeds and gets dirty (knees in mud, elbows in blood type stuff) and is responsible for rotary wing AME. Air Force is more the surgical and strategic evac (fixed wing AME).

When it all boils down, the Air Force "downunder" offers many unique opportunities and is a lot friendlier environment to work in. For me, I just couldn't bring myself to wear a blue uniform. That's an Aussie's opinion anyway. Hope it helps.

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Spoke with the recruiter this morning and really think I'm going to join. Retiring @ 48 c/ a full pension while still being able to work full time for 10+ years just seems way to attractive to pass up. And out-ranking some MDs after a few years...come on... who wouldn't love that? I've got some serious decision making to do. My lease is up Jan 9 and there's an Officer's Training course beginning on Jan. 12th. I think, after a year of civilian nursing, which defies logic much of the time and in many ways, that I wouldn't mind one bit waving good-bye to it. Wish me luck.

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Go Baby Go!! I wish I were young enough to go in and it would be AF. Have an ex who was in the Army and several family members who were/are Navy. Consesus is the same throughout that AF treats their people better and the interaction between officers and enlisted is better also.

Just be sure you get your duty IN WRiting on you recruitment forms, as with any service they will put you where they need you the most if you don't specify!!! If you want OR make them put it in writing. A uniform to work for free med care, free housing, early retirement, free travel. There will be bad days but hang in, the good will outweigh the bad.

Good Luck and Keep us informed how it's going.

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