Military nursing

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I really want to be an RN and it's way to tough to get into a program where I live, I was thinking about joining the army/navy/air force to get my RN through either one of those branches and was wondering if once I were off active duty could I work at any hospital or would it have to be an army hospital, and also is the pay rate the same for army RNs and civilian RNs?

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Woah woah slow down.

If you join the military they will not just put you through RN school. You need a BSN from a university, the military will not provide you with a BSN via one of their tech or MOS schools.

You have a few options, all which in this day and age are scarce due to budget cuts. In 2006-2009 you would have been golden for any branch with bonuses and loan repayment. Now not even close.

1. ROTC at a university. It's a 4 year program that will take a lot of work in addition to nursing but you will come out of it as an officer. Very tough to get into nowadays and requires an 8 years contract to boot. I commissioned this way. Their number of nursing scholarship has been cut severely in the last year or so.

2. Get your own BSN and a few years experience in the civvy world then try to direct commission into the military. Right now this is very difficult for any branch if not impossible.

There really are no other viable options for you at this point and the military will not be a quick way into nursing school as they do not provide RN education in house. As for pay, i don't really understand your question. All military nurses are paid off of a standard pay scale based off years and rank.

You need to do A LOT more research, try checking out the military section of the site under specialties.

Good Luck

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.

Link with info: https://allnurses.com/government-military-nursing/military-nursing-885815.html

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Specializes in Adult Critical Care.

Military pay is generally significantly better than civilian pay for nurses, especially once you have experience. However, you are moving every 2-3 years and you are probably working 10-20% more. There are also a lot of strings attached too.

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