Joining th Navy with BSN: Reserve or Active Duty?

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I recently graduated with a BSN, but my degree will not be awarded until my minor requirement is complete by August of this year. I did my nursing leadership rotation in a military hospital, and was inspired to join the Navy as a nurse. I am, however, torn of applying to new grad RN position at the hospital I am currently working on and if possible, would like to start my career as a nurse in a civilian hospital for at least 2 to 3 years before joining the Navy.

For those who used to be or currently working as a Nurse Corps for the US Navy, I have a couple questions before I make the most crucial decision:

1. Is it a better choice to start my career in a civilian hospital to get my nursing experience prior to joining the Navy as a nurse? If I joined after few years of nursing experience, do I get commissioned/start at O-1 rank (Ensign)?

2. Is it possible to work in both civilian hospital (after few years of full-time/part-time) as a nurse and in the Navy as an active duty Nurse?

3. How long is the officer candidate school once commissioned as a Navy nurse?

4. If in the future that I have started a family when I decided to join the Navy as a nurse, is it possible to request to be stationed close to my family/home while also working in a civilian hospital as part-time or per-diem? I want to be as close as possible to my family while providing the best financial means.

Thanks to advance!

BVS

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Have you talked to a recruiter? Joining the U.S. Navy Nursing Corp isn't as easy as your decision to join. The Navy has very few billets available for nurses and majority of those billets are currently occupied. Most college students begin corresponding with a recruiter in their sophomore year in attempt to garner a billet. The Nursing Corp is currently overmanned even in Specialty areas like ED, ICU, and OR. As for being active duty and working part time in a civilian hospital it is possible but not likely. Remember you are in the military 24hrs a day which means you could be recalled at anytime; you also have General military training, organized PT, and meetings which you are required to attend during your days off.

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I graduated with my BSN in December '14 and received my license in February. As soon as I received my license, I looked into joining the navy to work as a nurse and got the exact same information PP responded. I was told by the recruiter that in all of 2014, the navy did not take ANY new graduate nurses unless they started correspondence while early in their nursing school career and committed to the navy before graduating. The recruiter told me that across the nation, there were NO nurses who were brought into the navy that were not part of this program, whether new grad or experienced.

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Specializes in Education, FP, LNC, Forensics, ED, OB.

Thread moved to Government/Military Nursing forum.

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You might want to read and post your questions to this busy and helpful discussion area hosted by a Navy Nursing Program Manager. Most are about the Navy Reserve rather than a full-time, active Navy career. That might be an option you'd want to consider.

https://allnurses.com/government-military-nursing/navy-reserve-nursing-932107.html

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