How hard is it to join as an RN?

Editorial Team / Moderator · Jun 10, 2013

All branches are very competitive at this point. If you have ICU experience, I think that will be helpful. For the Army's purposes, they'll probably want you to have two years of ICU before you could join as a critical care nurse. I'm not sure if you're interested in the Army -- you didn't specify a branch -- but experienced nurses have the best shot right now, in my opinion. Even ROTC nurses are not being guaranteed active duty slots -- many seem to be going to the Reserves. Good luck in the rest of your ASN program! :)

RayJordan · Jun 10, 2013

As far as I know. The Navy ROTC almost guarantees you a spot for their nursing program. (You still have to go through NCP, but they look rather highly on that)

As far as the Air Force, ROTC guarantees you a spot (from what I'm told) with their nursing program.

Army, you're not guaranteed an active duty slot. It's about a 50/50 shot from what I was told.

carolinapooh, BSN, RN · Jun 11, 2013

ROTC doesn't give you a 'leg up' if you're talking about ROTC at the uni level - it's one of the pathways into the military as an officer.

USAF ROTC students who are studying nursing have applied through ROTC for a nursing officer slot as an active duty officer. The US Army is currently not giving every ROTC grad an active duty commission, but they are still given a commission: some are Reserves and some are AD, and there are pros and cons for each. As far as I know, the Navy is still running like the USAF: all active commissions.

Some Army ROTC folks on this board have said it's more like a 1 in 3 chance of receiving an AD versus a Reserve commission and not a 50/50 chance.