IHS, Indian Health Service, USPHS, United States Public Health Service

[Twinsmama28, ASN, BSN, CNA, RN]

Hello! I am in nursing school and I graduate May 2021. My goal is to work for IHS (Indian Health Service) directly and then commission into USPHS (United States Public Health Service) as an officer. Can any nurses share with me your experience working for IHS? Any particular locations or sites you can recommend? It has been very hard for me to find any nurses that have worked for IHS or nurses that have experience with USPHS.  I’m looking for the IHS location that would be best for families, or one that is closer to a major city that my family and I could live and I could commute. Thank you for your help!

[Moscrows, MSN]

I applied for the IHS and now am glad I did not get an interview. My experience is that it took them about 4 months for them to respond to my application. .. so my advice is to be patient. The government system is SLOW. I had already gotten another job long before they got back to me. I have 10 pt. veteran's preference, but not Indian preference... so I'm not sure why I didn't get an interview. I'm assuming someone applied with a lot more experience or who was already in the system. So my second piece of advice would be to be flexible in what sites you want to work at and not aim for a specific location. (My husband is military so I don't have much flexibility). The Indian hospital where I'm at only has ~30 beds and I think it would have been difficult to work there as a new grad because it is so small. I ended up at a 250 bed hospital with a nurse residency program. Good luck! I'd love to hear how it works out for you.

[pennprincess]

Hello, 

I don’t jump on here often, but will ask to see if once a nurse is commissioned the hiring process is that slow to transfer to IHS. But yes, the government hiring process for both USPHS and some of the agencies can be slow. The IHS agency has contracting nurse positions as well.