Help-Army Officer transfer to Nurse Corps

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Hi everyone! Thanks for reading and providing any information to my questions. I have a lot of questions!

About me: I'm a Military Intelligence CPT(P) on active-duty Army. I've been in for almost 13 years. I will be transitioning to the Army Reserves this March and attending an accelerated nursing program this Summer. After getting my RN license, my goal is to come back to active duty into the Nurse Corps. I have a nurse assistant cert, but no LPN, RN, ASN experience. 

Has anyone transitioned into the Nurse Corps from another branch? What's the AMEDD board process? How did the demotion go for you (an Air Force recruiter told me I'd probably become a 1LT), how long is the process? Where do I get info for the board, when it meets, what's required, etc? So far, all I've found is info for enlisted transitions to nurse officers or civilians going to military nursing. So, I'm unsure if I'd have to do a nurse officer leader course since I did one (although it was for intel). I know the recruiters are the go-to's but unfortunately recruiters lie sometimes so I'm trying to find information in regulations, people's experiences before continuing further with recruiters. 

I talked to an AF recruiter a few months ago and will again once I'm accepted into a nursing program. I never heard back from the Navy recruiters. Ideally, I'd like to stay in the same branch (Army) but am open to others. I understand the AF and Army have a Nurse Transition Program, but only the AF says they except no-experience new grads. Does anyone know if the Army or Navy does this? 

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Specializes in Adult Critical Care.

I'm a current Air Force reserves nurse who has 9 years of combined reserves and active duty time.

Neither the Air Guard and Air Force Reserves accepts new grad RNs.  You must have 1 year of full-time RN experience, a BSN from a U.S. school, and an RN license on day 1 in order to serve in an RN job.  I'm pretty sure it's the same in the Navy and Army Nurse Corps.  Reservists/guard are expected to already know their jobs and be immediately deployable.  Drill weekends/annual tour are really for doing online trainings, PT tests, drug tests, and unit field/training exercises...not teaching you how to be a nurse.

The active duty Air Force does accept new grads and has a transition program for them.  You hold an undeployable, training status AFSC ('46N1') during that time.  I'm pretty sure that's what you're seeing online.  

Your only option is to stay in the Army Reserves in your current role until you have met all the requirements I stated above.  Then contact a health professions recruiter from the Air Force website.

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Specializes in Adult Critical Care.

As far as your other questions, it's little hard to say what your rank would be.  I've known 1 other person in a similar situation.  She was a civil engineer on active duty in the Air Force and transitioned to an RN in the active duty Air Force following a break in service.  She came in as an O-2, but she also had several years of civilian RN experience; we generally credit civilian RN experience at 50% towards time in grade.  You need either 4 years of RN experience or an MSN to start as an O-2.  

She of course got credit for all her years of military service, but I'm not sure she got anything for her engineer experience.  She was a 'maxed-out' O-2.

I'm fairly certain you will need to do Air Force officer basic (8 weeks).  However, there is a shortened 2 week class called RCOT that you may be eligible for based on your experience.  

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That's all great information! Thank you for your replies. I'll make note of it all. If I'm unable to get back into active duty right away, I'm thinking of doing a nurse residency somewhere to get more experience as a fresh grad. Maybe that could be what I do while I wait to have some experience under my belt for active duty. 

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Specializes in ER.

wendalin920 are you still looking into Navy nursing? I am a Navy nurse officer. If you still have any question go ahead and ask me.

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daniel4navy said:

wendalin920 are you still looking into Navy nursing? I am a Navy nurse officer. If you still have any question go ahead and ask me.

Is it possible to join the military with an associate degree? If yes, would you recommend it?

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Specializes in Adult Critical Care.

All 3 branches require minimum BSNs from U.S. Nursing Schools.  If you're already going that route, I'd recommend associates to MSN programs online.  MSNs start as O-2s,  Plus, you'd eventually need as masters degree to promote anyway if you decide to make it a career.  The military likes school.

If I remember correctly, when they used to allow ADNs to commission, they couldn't promote to O-3.

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daniel4navy said:

wendalin920 are you still looking into Navy nursing? I am a Navy nurse officer. If you still have any question go ahead and ask me.

Thanks for the offer! Did you have any experience as a nurse before you joined? I've now been able to talk to recruiters from all the branches and if it's accurate, the Navy seems to take on more new grads than the other services. One thing that attracts me to the Navy is humanitarian work I've heard the Navy does. Are these like deployments or considered as other work? How often are they available for work in underserved countries/areas of the US? In the Army, I'm used to frequent field trainings, weapons qualifications, and sometimes getting put into jobs that are open to any officer occupation. Is this similar to nurses in the Navy or are you able to really just focus on being a nurse? 

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Specializes in ER.

wendalin920, I have close to 20 years of nursing experience. If you join the reserve, then any activity outside your monthly drill and 2 weeks of Summer per year is considered deployment. So any humanitarian work is considered deployment. I can't say how frequently these type of humanitarian deployments happen. If you're interested in those type of work, then consider joining Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (USPHS Commissioned Corps). 

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Specializes in ER.

Teelaw, You need a minimum of BSN to become an officer nurse in the US military. You can join the military with an associate's degree in nursing, but you will be an enlisted and not an officer and you will not work as a nurse. You might be able to work as a corpsman.

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daniel4navy said:

Teelaw, You need a minimum of BSN to become an officer nurse in the US military. You can join the military with an associate's degree in nursing, but you will be an enlisted and not an officer and you will not work as a nurse. You might be able to work as a corpsman.

Do you know which navy base/location have ICU units? Thanks

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Specializes in ER.

Within the Navy, there are 8 hospitals, 10 medical centers, two hospital ships, and over 30 Navy medical commands and ambulatory care clinics. 

The ones with ICU are:

1) Guantanamo bay hospital

2) Pensacola naval hospital, Florida

3) Jacksonville naval hospital, Florida

4) Beaufort naval hospital, South Carolina

5) camp lejeune marine Corps base hospital, north Carolina

6) marine corps air ground combat center hospital, twentynine California. 

7) camp Pendleton hospital, California

?Bremerton naval hospital, Washington State 

I am sorry for number 8, for some reason, the website keeps adding an emoji instead of the number 

 

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