Navy Nurse Deployment Cycles

Raider 3/1 · Oct 16, 2013

That's not a bad question, people have been asking the same questions over and over again here. It would be nice to see if a current Navy Nurse corps officer can answer that since im curious about deployment cycles myself.

donteyeballme · Oct 20, 2013

I am a Lieutenant, critical care nurse, currently stationed at Camp Pendleton Naval Hospital and recently returned from a deployment in Afghanistan in July. I hope to clear up some confusion about deployments. Your subspecialty (med-surg, ER, critical care, etc.) has a huge impact on what deployment you get. Some subspecialties deploy more than others; however, no subspecialty is "safe" from deploying.

The way deployments works is that BUMED sends out taskers to each medical treatment facilities (MTF). The MTFs are responsible for finding nurses to fill those taskers. Each MTF may differ in the way they select who to place on these taskers. Factors include, but are not limited to date since last deployment, nursing experience, subspecialty, how much time you have left at the command, etc. Commands usually like to keep nurses at the command 1 year after they deploy. In other words, if you back from deployment less than a year, they will give the tasker to someone who has not deployed.

I first deployed in 2007 as an ENS / Med Surg nurse to Africa. I did not deploy again until 2012. The tasker for my recent deployment came out in June 2012 and they were looking for an experience ICU nurse that can handle drips in flight. My division officer determined that I met all the criteria and assigned the tasker to me. In October, they sent me to LA Trauma for training. I reported to Camp Lejeune, NC for deployment training in November. I was concidered an HSAP (Health Specialty Augmentation Program) or individual augmentee. In other words, doctors, nurses, and specialized corpsmen from different command are brought together to train and deploy as a group. After a month of Marine training and "hurry up and wait," we arrived to Afghanistan in January 2013. While on this deployment, I earned the Fleet Marine Force Warfare Officer pin.

Navy nurses can also deploy at the Role 3 in Kandahar, with an Expeditionary resuscitative surgical Suite (ERSS) on a ship, with the Marines, on the USNS Mercy or Comfort, EMF Djibouti, or Pacific Partnership to name a few.

elisabethm · Oct 20, 2013

Thanks for sharing your experience with us, donteyeballme! I was also curious about this topic.

Editorial Team / Moderator · Oct 20, 2013

Interesting information, thanks! The Army system isn't too different. We use the Professional Filler System (PROFIS) to provide augmentees for medical slots. I'm PROFIS to a Forward Surgical Team (FST). There are similarities with the tasker system, too. How long do Navy nurse deployments tend to be? Six months? Ours are currently nine months, they went up from six months last year.

DSchulte99 · Oct 20, 2013

All depends on the tasker. I've seen taskers go from 6 months to 396 days.

NavyNICUnurse · Oct 20, 2013

Donteyeball gave pretty solid advice. I am also an active duty LT, 1964 community (NICU nursing). Because my subspecialty is not operational I have actually never been deployed. However it is worthwhile to note that I have two colleagues, also 1964's who have been deployed to ICU billets because the Navy still counts NICU as critical care experience.

Raider 3/1 · Oct 23, 2013

That was some of the best info I have heard Donteyeball. Thank you for sharing!

lasarazen · Feb 16, 2014

Roger thanks for all that info! Sounds like a good time.

ADCo2 · Mar 25, 2014

What sub specialty would you say is most likely to do FMF? Critical care? And would it be the same for flight nurses? (Currently going into jr. year nursing, would like to do Critical Care in the Navy).

DSchulte99 · Mar 25, 2014

Fmf means you've been with the marines and passed the requirements for the device. They have taskers for er, icu and medsurge nurses. In addition to that I've seen APu/pacu and labor and delivery nurses fill the med surge billets. After your first duty station you can apply for operational billet with first med battalion and a few others. These are LT positions so remember it's one up and one down. I honestly have no clue what they do when they are not deployed. I do know that there are few nurses then when they deploy they take others from all over big navy for teams such as shock trauma platoon, Frss, causality transport and a few other teams. We are on the back end of the war. If you're still in school don't expect to see time there. Things are dwindling down plus you will start on a med surge floor and won't deploy till atleast a year. Those ensign deployments are usually gitmo or dijibuti. There are 3 actual flight nurses. 2 in Diego Garcia. One in St. Louis working for a joint task force coordinating air flights. Now in certain commands you can be tasked to transport PTs to a higher acuity of care. I know nurses that have done FEW flights out of Guam and Japan.

mannyv07 · Jul 2, 2017

Don't know if this post is still active. Any info on how often Navy reserve nurses get deployed and for how long? I also know it probably varies by specialty.