Lost and in the Army!

iToniai · Jun 16, 2009

Hi, I am new to this website so bear with me if this is a bit messy! I am in Army ROTC right now and will be graduating May 2010 with my Nursing degree and hopes of becoming a Critical Care nurse. I have a few questions about what will happen once I commission and become an Army Nurse...
1. What happens after graduation? (where do I go, BOLC 3, how long, etc.)
2. I understand that there is a Army Nurse Residency program that I am required to do for 1 year. Where is this done? Can I do it at Ft. Sam Houston? If not, what are the other options for locations to do my residency?
3. Once I am done with my residency, I understand that I get a "top 5" choice of where I would like my first duty station to be...what is the likely-hood of staying at Ft. Sam Houston?
4. Does anyone know of a website that explains EVERYTHING??? My cadre are giving me the run-around and all of these military websites just give me a brief synopsis but nothing that tells me WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN! Needless to say, I am frustrated.
I would appreciate any and all help, I just want to be prepared and well versed so I don't look ridiculous as a new 2LT!
Thank you :)
Rachel

Hi, I wasn't in ROTC but I am a direct commission.

1) Nurses go to OBLC, not BOLC. From what I know BOLC is more geared towards 70 Bravos

2) Nurse residency program is apparently going through some changes and isn't called that anymore. But it's basically just a preceptorship, I haven't started it yet so I can't tell you what it's like. It can be done at any army medical center (i.e. BAMC (Fort Sam Houston). As a new nurse you'll typically only get the choice of going to a medical center, so whichever you pick is where you'll be doing your residency. You won't be choosing a different duty station after you residency is over, you'll be working at that same hospital. The choices they gave me as a new nurse was WAMC (Fort Bragg), BAMC (Fort Sam Houston), Tripler (Hawaii), WRAMC (Washington, DC), Landstuhl (Germany), and MAMC (Fort Lewis). Please note though during OBLC i met fellow new nurses who were going to Fort Gordon, Fort Hood, and Fort Bliss...so it all depends on the army's need. I only met a handful of new nurses who didn't get their first choice.

3) See #2

4) There really isn't much about the nurse residency program on the web. I know before I went to OBLC i really couldn't find anything. During OBLC you can talk with the nurse liaison during the nursing track but you won't really know what the program entails until you get to your duty station. This blog have helped me a lot http://road2anc.blogspot.com/

Rose3721 · Jun 17, 2009

I just commissioned into the Nurse Corps through ROTC last month. Your best source of information is your brigade nurse counselor so ask your cadre for his/her contact information. You should be counseled by that counselor at least once a semester. But for now you really need to just concentrate on school and getting through LDAC. Your nurse counselor will explain everything in detail to you as you get closer but you have to successfully negotiate LDAC before even thinking about it. Make sure you go to the NSTP course, it's a 3 week nurse internship the summer between your junior and summer year to introduce you to the nurse corps. You'll learn a lot and it's a lot of fun.

Some basics- OBC is 9 weeks at Ft Sam, many in ROTC will call it BOLC 3 it's the same thing. After OBC you go to your first duty station, which you find out about your last semester in school. It will be one of the big Army Medical Centers. Once there you will be preceptored by another nurse, usually for a few months, just depends on your skills level and comfort on your own.

beck_worth · Jun 18, 2009

During second semester of my junior year (2008) I had a total of nine choices where I could be stationed, and I was told to rank them 1-9. The choices were: FSH, Fort Gordon, Fort Bliss, Fort Hood, Fort Lewis, Landstuhl, and Tripler (Hawaii), Fort Bragg, and Washington DC.

I got my second choice, Hawaii. I was just as frustrated as you for a while trying to figure out this whole 1 year preceptorship thing. I also got the run around from my cadre and my Brigade Nurse counselor. I finally decided that its so new, changes will inevitable be made to it. I'm not sure that a concrete outline of it actually exists. I'm just gonna roll with it.

Dee Tonia is right, you will stay at your first duty station after that first year. good luck to you!

bcla0911 · Jul 18, 2009

Hi! I have been stationed at Tripler Army Medical Center for the past 2.5 years, as an RN. I can tell you not to sweat the residency program, as it was first implemented here. The residency program is basically just a program for all new ANC nurses in which you are given the opportunity to work for a few weeks on your "home unit" within the hospital, and then you are released to work on other clinical areas and units within the hospital (under the guidance of a preceptor the entire time). Each clinical experience is varied in length, from one to 3-4 weeks at a time. This opportunity affords you a few different benefits: you get the chance to make several networking contacts, you become familliar with the layout of the hospital (it's huge!); you get to experience several types of work environments which may help you decide which specialty to pick, and you are a more well-rounded nurse when the year is over. I will recommend that you select a Nurse Mentor (you will do this during OBLC) at your selected/assigned duty station, and make sure to keep in contact with this Mentor.

So, to provide some guidance to your concerns in order:

1. Graduation, then OBLC at FT Sam for ? weeks (they keep changing it....my OBLC was 15 weeks).

2. Residency program (explained above) is done at your first duty assignment, after which you stay on at that duty assignment.

3. After residency program, no "top 5 " is offered (unless they have changed the program)...you simply stay at that duty station..

4. There is no website that will explain everything. Once you get to OBLC, utilize the Nurse Liason. By the time you get there, it should be MAJ Connor. She is awesome, and will assist however she can.