Military Nursing career path

[LoEdge]

I will be graduating from nursing school in a little less than a year and currently going over some options for jobs after. I always was interesting in possibly being an RN in the navy or air force but never really looked into it. Over the past week from reading the forums and the military sites 90% of my questions were answered but still have a few left. My biggest question right now is, is there any point in the RN's military career(20-25 years of service) where they will stop moving you around and possibly getting deployed? Is there a certain rank or time served that will limit the frequency of relocating? Possibly a more permanent managerial or administrative position? Or from the day you start to the day you retire you will be moving around every few years. The one thing i have learned from reading is that the needs of the military always come first, if they need you, you're going, and i fully understand that, but after 12-15 years do they limit the movement? thanks for your help.

[jfratian, DNP, RN, CRNA]

Officers in the military move a lot. Overseas bases have 2-3 year limits. To save money for the military, stateside officers can stay in a place for a little longer now; It's unlikely you'll say anywhere for longer than 4 years though. I would actually say you move more later in your career, especially if you become a chief nurse or squadron commander. Those jobs have hard-cap 2 year limits; you'd move every 2 years for sure. How much you deploy will depend your base, clinical specialty, and what is going on in the world. O-5s and O-6s definitely deploy; someone has to be in charge of the deployed medical treatment facility. Sure, if you're super high up the chain (nursing corp chief) you can't deploy, but generally all ranks deploy.