Military nursing as a single parent?

yelper42 · Sep 18, 2006

Hi there. Glad to hear you are considering the service again. I have been an Army for ten years and still going. I can retire(was enlisted for ten too) but I like it so much I am going to stay as long as they will have me. My HN is a single parent and she has been deployed twice to Iraq. In the Army you have to have a good support plan to take care of your child so you can work. If you come in as a 2LT you will get rotating shifts and the like until you make a little rank and get a better job. You may get a job like in a clinic where you have decent hours but that might be the exception. If you have family maybe they could help out. It would be hard but you could do it. I have worked as a civilian also and being in the service is so much better in my opinion. You are part of something larger than yourself. Not to mention are all the benefits. The Army paid for my BSN and my masters as a psych NP. Of course you know better than anyone that serving has the deployments also and that is the down part as long as we are at war. I'm not a recruiter or anything but I really like being in uniform. I think the benefits far outweigh the downside. Hope this helps.

Corvette Guy · Sep 18, 2006

Hi there. Glad to hear you are considering the service again. I have been an Army for ten years and still going. I can retire(was enlisted for ten too) but I like it so much I am going to stay as long as they will have me. My HN is a single parent and she has been deployed twice to Iraq. In the Army you have to have a good support plan to take care of your child so you can work. If you come in as a 2LT you will get rotating shifts and the like until you make a little rank and get a better job. You may get a job like in a clinic where you have decent hours but that might be the exception. If you have family maybe they could help out. It would be hard but you could do it. I have worked as a civilian also and being in the service is so much better in my opinion. You are part of something larger than yourself. Not to mention are all the benefits. The Army paid for my BSN and my masters as a psych NP. Of course you know better than anyone that serving has the deployments also and that is the down part as long as we are at war. I'm not a recruiter or anything but I really like being in uniform. I think the benefits far outweigh the downside. Hope this helps.

yelper42 - Great info and thank you for your military service in the ANC and prior Army as enlisted. I, too, was enlisted for almost the same number of years.

nuberianne - I'd like to add that all military personel w/dependents fill out an FCP [Familly Care Plan], which designates to whom will care for the minor dependents while deployed OCONUS unaccompanied. Regards to shift schedule, I work alternating three 12 hr shifts & four 12 hr shifts in a two week period at a MEDCEN ICU.

ArmyMSN · Sep 21, 2006

Just finished a deployment - its very difficult to be a single parent while deployed. You definitely need to have someone available to keep your child - same goes for your day to day working in hospitals - you can't expect to drop everything at work each time your child gets sick or needs something - you'll need definitely need a backup plan. Think very carefully as I've seen a lot of difficult situations for single Army nurses - many of which leave the Army because it just doesn't work out.