Navy Nurse Life/Military Nurse

[ChiefFaith]

I’m currently finishing my pre reqs for nursing. I’ve dreamt of being in the navy since I was young. But am becoming unsure.

I want to be an ICU nurse. But don’t know if I’ll be able to practice as much as I’d like to since I’ve heard that navy corpsman gets more field of practice than nurses do in the navy. While nurses mostly lead and do management nursing.

I wanted to hear of the opportunities that navy nurses have. Do they get to travel. How hard is it to become an icu nurse?

[caughtupinthismoment, ADN, BSN]

What are your motivations for both?

I am a clinical instructor and I tell all my students, focus on getting through nursing school and the specialty doors will open for you when you reach the other side. In the meantime, just focus on getting through school and passing the NCLEX. Who knows, you might end up liking a specialty you never thought you would ever work in. ?

[PEK93RT]

As a Navy Nurse, your an Officer first, nurse second, but that does not mean you don't practice at the bedside. As a junior officer, your main job is to excel at being a nurse, whether at the bedside or in the clinic. You will be training Corpsman how to take care of patients, administer medications, as well as teaching new Navy nurses how to be a nurse overtime. As you become more senior in rank, such as a senior O3, then you will need to choose how you will continue your career. Senior Navy Nurses such as O4-O6 can be clinicians (advance practice) and still be in direct patient care, but as one progresses O5, O6 there will be less direct patient care and more management duties. Whether a commanding officer of a hospital, or officer in charge of a clinic, you still make time to maintain your credentials.

- clinician -> choose NP, CRNA, CNS, periop nurse programs (on the Navy's dime, your job will be a student)

- management -> work as a Division Officer "nurse manager", progress to department head, or out of the field such as department head of staff education and training, in charge of command sexual assault programs, command alcohol programs, etc

- research -> PhD program (on the Navy's dime, your job will be a student)

As for travel, depends on your specialty. Critical care (ICU/ER) gets deployed more frequently, in my almost 10 years in, been deployed 3 times. Done things I could have never imagined as a civilian nurse... You also can deploy on the hospital ship the Comfort or Mercy in support of humanitarian crisis or missions. May also take care of enemy combatants if deployed into a war zone. You will provide the best care you can to them, and local nationals, as you are a representative of the USA.

The Navy is short on ICU nurses and OR nurses, and provided bonuses up to $20,000/year after your accession bonus commitment is done.

Some of the benefits of being in include free health insurance, great pay with big jumps with promotions, 30 days of vacation a year, able to go to school with full salary and benefits, potential to retire at 20 years with lifetime of health insurance and retirement pay, Post 9/11 bill that can be used for yourself or passed on to spouse or children, free air travel (hard to take advantage of), and represent the USA.

Some of the hardships include moving every 2-3 years, deploying for 6-8months at a time, not always doing just nursing, working 40+ hours a week, not fully in control of your career (needs of the Navy come first) and family hardships (loss of social networks upon moving).

Hope this helps.