Looking into Joining the Navy Reserve for Nursing

Specialties Government

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I will be earning my BSN in April, 2013. I've been interested in joining the Navy ever since High School, but never did it. I come from a military family. My grandfather was Air Force. My dad was in the Army and had always told me to earn my degree first, then enlist as an officer. Right now I feel that the Navy reserve is the best choice for me. Currently I live in California (Southern) but will be moving back to the Bay Area after graduation. I'm currently looking for a medical officer recruiter but can't seem to find one. If anyone can help me out with this, I would appreciate it. Obviously, I don't want to just head down to a recruiting office, and would prefer talking with an officer recruiter who knows about the medical portion of it.

I've read a lot about being in the reserves. I've read about the one weekend a month, and two-weeks a year minimum commitment. What else are the minimal requirements? I mean, I've read that it's possible to also maintain a civilian job, but I would like to have a job as a nurse working for the Navy. How long is the time commitment for the reserves? How do you make a career of it?

As far as deployment, after enlisting when would the soonest possibility of deployment happen? How long is the average deployment? I'm newly engaged, what happens when a woman in the reserves is pregnant?

Upon enlisting as an officer, with my BSN, what is the next step? Officer training school?

Any information you can give me is greatly appreciated. This is something I've wanted to pursue for a long time, but like I mentioned, I think the reserves is best for me since I want to be married and have a family too.

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I forgot to ad, one of my main goals with joining the navy reserve is to further my education, earning a masters or even pursuing CRNA. Also, to work as a nurse in critical care (ER) and just gain valuable experience and discipline.

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I was enlisted in the Navy for 4 years and yes, you definitely want to get your degree first and then enter the military as an officer. Couple of things. First, officers don't enlist. When you enlist you sign a contract for a certain amount of years. Officers work slightly different. I believe the minimum commitment is 3 years. I know the minimum for active duty is 3 years and they do loan repayment (not 100% sure if reserves does that or not, I know Army reserve does). I will be applying to an accelerated BSN program and I too would like to go back in the reserves in the nurse corps. I also would like to get my masters in either CRNA or NP too. I know both the Army and Navy offer big bonuses if you are a NP or CRNA. Check out America's Navy - A Global Force for Good: Navy.com, there you'll be able to find more info about active and reserve options as well as find an officer recruiter.

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Specializes in CRITICAL CARE.

Navy Reserves:

8 years total commitment. At least 3 years as a selected reservist and 5 years IRR. If you are non-prior service, you can't get deployed until after 2 years. After DCO/ODS which will be your first 2 week annual training, you can sign up for billets or additional missions and extend them if you like the place. Deployments are 8 monts on average.

As for education, there are different sign-on bonuses you can get. Depending on your designator, there is a monetary one which can be up to 45k or a mixed 10k + 50k loan repayment. These bonuses always change every year though so a Nurse Corp recruiter would be one to talk to.

Sorry, don't know anything about the pregnancy part although they expect you to have a dependable family support structure prior to comissioning,

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