Military contract and awards

[faunurse]

I am a new commissioned officer at the U.S. Army Nurse Corps and I will do my drills with a Combat Support Hospital (CSH) unit in North Florida. My recruiter told me, as a reserve, I have a contract of 3 years (Reserve) and 5 years (IRR). On the contract that I signed, it only mentioned 8 years. How does it really work?

Question 2:

What a nurse at the military can do to earn awards from his/her unit or the army? In other words, what are the criteria to get awards?

[SoldierNurse22, BSN, RN]

Your contract should include the amount of time you're serving in the active reserve and the time you have remaining in the IRR. The 3/5 split you reference in the OP is pretty typical.

There are different criteria for different awards. Most of them revolve around a certain level of performance that is qualitative, not quantitative, in nature. There isn't a checklist that you can run down and somehow qualify for recognition.

While awards are nice, you're a new officer. You need to focus on developing yourself professionally as both a Soldier and a nurse above everything else. Awards shouldn't be on your radar at this point.

[nurse2033, MSN, RN]

I don't think you can really target awards. Sometimes you will get one just from doing what are supposed to, like deploying. For others you will be recognized for excellence. If you just maximize your engagement and performance you will probably get one sooner or later. I agree, that shouldn't be a concern at your stage of career.

[Dranger]

Awards should be none of your concern really, this isn't the Boy Scouts. That being said there are some awards you will eventually get for just doing your job like the AAM or even ARCOM sadly. I got an AAM within one month of commissioning just for doing my job and two within one year. Do good things and people will notice but in my opinion unless the awards are for combat, valor, wounds or doing absolutely above and beyond in your job role I don't think much of them.

As others have said focus on being a good soldier first especially when you are coming in as a direct commission.. As an officer all eyes will be on you to set an example.