Navy Nurse Questions

DUECSON · May 30, 2007

CSHarriganRI, thanks aswell, when will you start your junior year? What school do you attend? The tuition and everything they pay is this correct?

navynurse06 · May 31, 2007

At NMCSD (where I am stationed) nurses on the medsurg floors wear their navy uniforms. But on Peds, L/d, ER, OR, PACU, PICU, and ICU wear scrubs.

ENS PM

mamma3munchkins · Jun 1, 2007

Navynurse06,

When you say navy uniforms is that khakis? Maybe working khakis? I'll be there at the end of August.

ENS Allison

mamma3munchkins · Jun 1, 2007

I have been in the Navy for 12 years. I am prior enlisted. My husband and I will both be stationed in San Diego in the fall.

ENS Allison

CSHarriganRI · Jun 1, 2007

Duecson,

I am 1/2 way done with my junior year, so I have one more junior semester and my two senior semesters. No, NCP is financial assistance for students, however, does not specify where you are to spend the money. So logically, some people may use the stipend the received to pay their incurred college expenses, but they could use it for spending money if that were a priority to them. I attend Rhode Island College in Providence.

Well the next selection board is Wednesday, so that is when I'lll get considered, I am all nerved up.

CH

navynurse06 · Jun 2, 2007

working khakis is correct! But don't forget in the areas I listed is where we wear scrubs. So hope for that. I got lucky with peds so I get to hang out in scrubs all day.

good luck.

ENS PM

kookinitreal · Jun 4, 2007

I'm not LCDR Dan but I'll answers some of your questions.
What will officer training be like?
Have you looked at the website for OIS? It helps give a pretty good outline of what OIS is like now. I graduated a year ago from OIS so I have the most current experiences r/t OIS. Its 5 Wks (but they were thinking of lower it to 4 wks) in Newport, RI training command. From what the prior enlisted that were in my class said it was pretty similiar to thier bootcamp. You will get yelled at; you have a marine DI as part of your training team. You will get up at the butt crack of down to pt and that's pretty much everyday. You will do everything the way you are told to, when you are told to, and how you are told to. Get the picture? It's no longer fork and knife school or a walk in the park.
When I am in the Navy, what kind of duty/work will be required of me? Is it like a normal job where I pick my own hours (40 hours a week) or is it 7 days a week, 16 hours each day? What other special requirements/responsiblities being an offier will be expected?
So when you get to your command you will work 12 hrs shifts. I'm on permanent nights now (due to my own request). So I usually work 3 on 3 off or something similiar. There are some wks I will have to work 4 days a wk but those are rare and the days are spaced out to where it doesn't really feel like I've work more days. You don't pick your own hours; there is a scheduling officer for each ward that makes out the schedule. Of course, you can request days off, request leave, etc. Also, most floors do rotating shifts 2 months days 2 months nights. (all this is based on the hospital I work at NMCSD). On my floor after you have been here for 6 months you can request permanent nights, which I did. I hate day shift and gettting up early. You will in a leadership postion b/c you are an officer. So you will team lead, and eventually be trained for charge nurse (i'm still waiting on that one but my floors a little slow on training people for charge esp. on nights).
What kind of living environment is it? Will I be given money for living arrangments, base housing? How does that all work? I would like to be at the San Diego hospital but the living costs are much higher than other places, does the money adjust to the living costs of the area or is it one set rate given?
The living environment vaires based on where you are stationed and what type of housing you live in. I'm in San Diego, married and don't live in base housing. I chose to live near the beach so I pay more for my housing (but there are plenty of areas I could've lived in that were cheaper). Your BAH is adjusted to the area you are stationed in. So depending on what you are looking for it could vary well cover all of your housing. Like I said before I'm married and we had certain things we were looking for in a condo so we pay more and BAH doesn't cover it all. My BAH is (i'm O1) $1677, but that's with a dependant. So it will be less if you are single. And it is increased as you make rank.
My main interest is Trama. I am currently a nursing assistant/ed tech and also have experience in med/surg and tele. I am also an EMT so I have a passion for the trama aspect. Will I be able to specialize in this right off or will I have to work up to it? With all my background in Trama is it possible that I have a higher priority to become an ER nurse?
I have the same interest as you. I had 2 yrs of ICU experience as a Tech when I came in. But as I have posted several times before. My tech experience wasn't taken into consideration, so I couldn't go to the ER right off (i'm still trying to get there). AT NMCSD the DNS now wants everyone to work on the floors for 1 yr before they can work in the critical care areas. So even though you have the tech experience you aren't going to get higher priority; you will have to work up to the ER. This used to be different; like when LCDR Dan 1st joined nurses could go straight to the ER (he did) but its not like that now.
Hope I covered everything. Let me know if I missed anything or if there are holes in my answers.
ENS PM

I think you're buttering it up a little.......

kookinitreal · Jun 4, 2007

Do yourself a favor and do a search on this forum under "Navy" and you will find LOTS of posts on this topic, but I'll give you a brief run down on your questions.
1.What are the requirements for being accepted?
Get your BSN, pass the physical, be under 44 years of age (ages over 40 require a waiver I believe), be a US citizen.

2.What is the minimum length for which you can sign up?
This changes from time to time, but I think 3 years active and 5 years inactive reserve is the shortest and you get a $25,000 signing bonus right now, I think.

3.After being accepted, what happens as far as training? (What kind, where do you go, how long etc)
First stop would be OIS. This is a 5 week crash course on how to be a naval officer. It's great, get up at 0400 for PT work your butt off. learn some basics of the NAvy and get in the best shape of your life....ever!
4.After training, then what? What kind of setting do you start off in, how long will you be there, and do you get any real choice at this point in where you'll be?
After OIS, you go to your first duty station, generally a large hospial. You will be presented with a "dream sheet" when you sign up as to where you want to go. Most people end up in Portsmouth, VA, Bethesda, MD or San Diego, CA, that is where the largest naval hospitals are. All except for a few duty stations assignments are for 3 years. The setting you start out in will be determined by the needs of the hospital when you get there, I'm a firm believer in having excperience in the area you want to be in before you get there. Others on here will attest that this doesn't always matter.

5.What about deployments? How often and how long? Do deployments differ for nurses and if they do, how so?
Most naval deployments are 6 months to 1 year. How often you get deployed depends on your platform on where you are located some what, but there are no guarantees here. Not sure what you mean by deployments differing for nurses, being away from home is being away from home. If you're looking for specifics, let me know.

6.What other things do I need to know but I don't know enough to know that I need to know them?
There are TONS of things, start with what you have above, speak to a Nurse/ Officer recruiter and go from there.
This should keep the "sucker" factor down, good luck.
LCDR(s) Dan

I have a question for you Dan...I've noticed there are people who can't stand the Navy and there are people who love the Navy and I've pretty much narrowed it down to work centers. Where did you go for your first tour of duty? I'm prior service and loved the Navy until I became a nurse. Navy nursing is the worst job I ever imagined.

navynurse06 · Jun 5, 2007

Kook,

I'm sorry that you don't like navy nursing. But I wasn't buttering anything up. I gave an honest answer. I love being a navy nurse, even though I had several issues on my floor. But I know that's not how it will always be. I will move on to another area in the hospital and another command eventually.

So please don't use your bad experiences to generalize navy nursing! Once again I'm sorry that you hate the nurse corps like you do...but maybe it would get better if/when you go to a different area or different command.

Becoming a Navy nurse is the best thing I've ever done!!! I'm sorry you don't feel that way.

Off to more ship life....

ENS PM

k6wi · Jun 5, 2007

I am going to be graduating in one year with a BSN and I am considering the Navy Nurse Corps. I have been following this thread and also have some questions. Hopefully, not repeating what's already been discussed.

For those of you that have civilian and military experience... are there differences in the types of patients and cases you encounter in each setting? If so, what do you like/dislike about each?

kookinitreal · Jun 6, 2007

I think you're buttering it up a little.......

Some of what you say is true. However, OIS IS knife and fork school. I've been through bootcamp. I never once had the opportunity to go drinking at the club/downtown or anywhere. Bootcamp you sure as hell have a lot more than one roommate. After being in bootcamp for a month your allowed to drink chocolate milk...which is the best feeling you could imagine.

No one in my work center is allowed to work perm nights. Furthermore, we all work 4 days a week every other week...and we work every other weekend...we are on call once per week and if they call you in you don't get paid anymore or additional days off. You can take leave, but you will don't work less hours. You're scheduled to work around your leave. You want Mon, Tues, and Wed off? No problem...You'll work Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun. Most days at work you barely have enough time to pee. There's no time to do any personal stuff. I never heard of a job where I was expected to work 13hrs with no break. We've even have a charge nurse hounding us to hurry up on 30min lunch. People in my work center would love to leave in 1yr. To this day I've never seen/heard of it happening.

I see you work at NMCSD...you obviously don't work on the med/surg floors.

Tell the peope who read these threads the truth.

If you can go to a medium size command do it. Stay there as long as possible. We've had several med/surg nurses come to NMCSD that have all this great med/surg experience. They don't know spit from poop and beg and whine to get off the floor asap. You can't have Lt's and Jg's complaining the work is too hard so they get sent to peds/psych/mother baby - something much easier. And if you do get sent to a big command. Tell the DNS how much you love kids, or how you've always wanted to be a psych or mother/baby nurse. You'll get paid the same and no where near the same amt of work/responsibility. Don't be fooled by the "you need med/surg experience." Most navy nurses run harder from med/surg than they would from the inside of a burning building. NavyNurse06 if you love navy nursing soo much why don't you join us up on the 5th deck...we could sure use your help...I've floated down on your floor. Felt like I was on vacation/had the night off. The only problem was...I knew how more needed I was up on my floor...my coworkers were really suffering.

kookinitreal · Jun 6, 2007

Kook,
I'm sorry that you don't like navy nursing. But I wasn't buttering anything up. I gave an honest answer. I love being a navy nurse, even though I had several issues on my floor. But I know that's not how it will always be. I will move on to another area in the hospital and another command eventually.
So please don't use your bad experiences to generalize navy nursing! Once again I'm sorry that you hate the nurse corps like you do...but maybe it would get better if/when you go to a different area or different command.
Becoming a Navy nurse is the best thing I've ever done!!! I'm sorry you don't feel that way.
Off to more ship life....
ENS PM

Some of what you say is true. However, OIS IS knife and fork school. I've been through bootcamp. I never once had the opportunity to go drinking at the club/downtown or anywhere. Bootcamp you sure as hell have a lot more than one roommate. After being in bootcamp for a month your allowed to drink chocolate milk...which is the best feeling you could imagine.

No one in my work center is allowed to work perm nights. Furthermore, we all work 4 days a week every other week...and we work every other weekend...we are on call once per week and if they call you in you don't get paid anymore or additional days off. You can take leave, but you will don't work less hours. You're scheduled to work around your leave. You want Mon, Tues, and Wed off? No problem...You'll work Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun. Most days at work you barely have enough time to pee. There's no time to do any personal stuff. I never heard of a job where I was expected to work 13hrs with no break. We've even have a charge nurse hounding us to hurry up on 30min lunch. People in my work center would love to leave in 1yr. To this day I've never seen/heard of it happening.

I see you work at NMCSD...you obviously don't work on the med/surg floors.

Tell the peope who read these threads the truth.

If you can go to a medium size command do it. Stay there as long as possible. We've had several med/surg nurses come to NMCSD that have all this great med/surg experience. They don't know spit from poop and beg and whine to get off the floor asap. You can't have Lt's and Jg's complaining the work is too hard so they get sent to peds/psych/mother baby - something much easier. And if you do get sent to a big command. Tell the DNS how much you love kids, or how you've always wanted to be a psych or mother/baby nurse. You'll get paid the same and no where near the same amt of work/responsibility. Don't be fooled by the "you need med/surg experience." Most navy nurses run harder from med/surg than they would from the inside of a burning building. NavyNurse06 if you love navy nursing soo much why don't you join us up on the 5th deck...we could sure use your help...I've floated down on your floor. Felt like I was on vacation/had the night off. The only problem was...I knew how more needed I was up on my floor...my coworkers were really suffering.