Graduate nurse wanting to enter Reserves looking for help from past/current recruiter

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Specializes in Psychiatric and emergency nursing.

I am getting ready to graduate from a BSN program and love to enlist in the reserves, but have a big problem in the way of my doing so. I am looking for anyone that may have experience as a recruiter, or someone that can point me in the right direction.

Thanks!

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Congrats to your upcoming graduation. I have been in the Army for 13 yrs (infantry) and have a good grasp on how things work. I also have a boat load of friends who are serving as Nurses in the Army, AF and Navy, so I can at least point you in the right direction. Whats on your mind?

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Specializes in ICU.

Hi OP! Why not just contact the health care recruiters directly? That way you get your answers straight from the horse's mouth. Also, typically the reserves want you to have some RN experience since they do not have orientation programs for new grads like the AD components do. I thought I should mention that since that is the response I got from the reserve recruiters. Don't be shy about contacting recruiters; they are there to help you, not to judge you or bring you down in any way.

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Specializes in Psychiatric and emergency nursing.

@ Enthused_Nurse: I have attempted to contact a few recruiters that haven't yet let me get past my opening statement of I have an RE-4 re-entry code.

@ MedicDB: Not to go too into detail here, but I enlisted in the Active Duty component of the Navy in '03. Due to a medical condition that is an automatic disqualifier, I had to have a waiver to get in. RTC went fine except for a stress fracture of my leg that left me unable to complete the final PFT. The weather in this particular area of the country (Great Lakes) is more schizophrenic than where I'm originally from, and drove my condition into a frenzy. After going to the Mercy for treatment, in a nutshell, the MD asked me basically what was wrong and if I had needed a waiver to get in. Next thing I knew, I was packing my things, heading towards separations with an RE-4 code. This left a bad taste in my mouth for the military for a while due to the fact that why I was put out wasn't my true problem, and the fact that they stated a "fraudulent enlistment" even though I don't think it was since I never attempted to hide anything. Long story short, I've since contacted my Congressman and requested a review for a hopeful upgrade in D/C code due to extenuating circumstances. I was a model recruit and have no "bad behavior" on my record. I had just needed to know if anyone knew the success rate of an upgrade of an RE-code through these channels or had any other advice. The military was all I wanted to do for a very long time, and feel like I was robbed of the opportunity to succeed there the first time.

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I called my local recruiter who was very kind, he said he couldn't take me because I have no experience in nursing. I just graduated.

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