MILITARY NURSING?!

Student4_life · Jan 31, 2011

A GED will definitely hinder your ability to get the military to pay for school prior to service, not that it's impossible, just a very long shot.

Active duty Air Force and Navy have no use for ADN nurses, at least not as officers but I am sure your recruiter would love to get you enlisted as a medic or corpsman. Of course then you wouldn't be doing nursing, but you could apply for enlisted commissioning programs that would send you to school to get your BSN (this is a great route as all the time you spend in school counts for retirement.

I think this is the best route for you: contact your local USAF and USN recruiters, tell each of them that you want to be a medic. Take the ASVAB (study for it, if you don't do well you can't be a medic). Whichever branch had positions available for medics, go with them, DO NOT ACCEPT A DIFFERENT JOB OR UNDESIGNIATED STATUS (if you do there is little chance you'll ever be a medic). While you are doing all of this knock out the universal prereqs (A&P, Chem, micro, statistics, some English and humanities, but get good grades (and I mean A's), because you have to impress 2 comitties, the ECP and the nursing school. When you ship out, constantly kick butt and take on leadership responsibilities (neither of these are needed in bootcamp, but great in a-school or ait). Apply every cycle, and if you follow the steps outlined the military will pay for your BSN degree, and you'll be able to retire at 38-40 if you choose to.

Best of luck

Skylarslaughter · Feb 9, 2011

A GED will definitely hinder your ability to get the military to pay for school prior to service, not that it's impossible, just a very long shot.
Active duty Air Force and Navy have no use for ADN nurses, at least not as officers but I am sure your recruiter would love to get you enlisted as a medic or corpsman. Of course then you wouldn't be doing nursing, but you could apply for enlisted commissioning programs that would send you to school to get your BSN (this is a great route as all the time you spend in school counts for retirement.
I think this is the best route for you: contact your local USAF and USN recruiters, tell each of them that you want to be a medic. Take the ASVAB (study for it, if you don't do well you can't be a medic). Whichever branch had positions available for medics, go with them, DO NOT ACCEPT A DIFFERENT JOB OR UNDESIGNIATED STATUS (if you do there is little chance you'll ever be a medic). While you are doing all of this knock out the universal prereqs (A&P, Chem, micro, statistics, some English and humanities, but get good grades (and I mean A's), because you have to impress 2 comitties, the ECP and the nursing school. When you ship out, constantly kick butt and take on leadership responsibilities (neither of these are needed in bootcamp, but great in a-school or ait). Apply every cycle, and if you follow the steps outlined the military will pay for your BSN degree, and you'll be able to retire at 38-40 if you choose to.
Best of luck

Thank you for all your information! Do you know anything about the National Guard? I was wondering if that was a better option to pay for my schooling and be able to stay in my home state?

cali79 · Mar 8, 2012

You seem very knowledgeable on the military aspect of nursing! I am currently in a BSN program and I am looking at both the navy and the airforce. I don't think that I am eligible for the navy currently because of when I graduate I missed the cut off. I wanted to know 2 things. First how do I find out all the bonuses or scholarships that I am eligible for through either branch. I want to get everything they will give me! Also I don't understand why I can't apply for the navy scholarship still. I am not graduating till next may? Also if you have any advise that for a potential military nurse please educate me!

Thanks in advanced