Military Reserves for new grad

[rach78]

hello,

I am about to be a new grade (in about 10 weeks) and have thought about military nursing through out school. It is something I have always wanted to do. However, I am a single mom and have heard that I would need to sign over custody of my son to go active duty. So I was thinking about the reserves, particularly Navy.

Is anyone out there in the Navy Reserves as a Nurse? What types of places are you called up to? Can you share any experiences with me? I am really just looking for information. As I understand it, you commit to one weekend amonth training, plus any deployment? Is that correct? Again, anything you can tell me would be great.

Thanks for your input,

Rachel

[jeckrn, BSN, RN]

No you do not have to sign custody of your child over to go on active duty. what you have to do is have a family care plan for when you deploy, go to school etc. You need this if you are active or reserves if you are a single parent or dual military parent.

The reserves are no longer 1 weekend a month, 2 weeks a year the amount of call ups and how the reserves are used has changed since the end of the cold war.

Before you sign with any service check out all 3 to find out which would be the best fit for you.

Also, the number of nurses being recruited this year is down so there is not as many slots so if you want to become a military nurse in FY 10 you will need to start talking with recruiters now.

good luck

[carolinapooh, BSN, RN]

I have a friend who's an Air Force Reserve RN (she's a major, an O4) and she says it seems the reserve units are being deployed nearly as often - and in some cases more often - than the active duty folks. And sometimes, the reservists are called up to fill the holes left by the deployed active duty RNs.