Navy Nursing/Corman

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I am currently a nursing student looking to enlist into the navy once I get my bachelor's degree. I my fiance also just got enlisted as a corman. Can anyone give me any advice on what life like is as a navy nurse? Whether or not they prefer it over civilian nursing? And if my fiance and I would get deployed together seeing as we're both in the medical field?

Thank you for all the advice in advance :)!

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1. Corpsman not corman

2. Officers commission they don't enlist and it's not as easy as just signing up it is very competitive

3. You should get married before you commission. Enlisted together with an officer is a no-no even if they are engaged. If you are married before you commission it's no bigge.

4. No you deploy via needs of the Navy and there is no guarantee you will be stationed together.

As for life as a Navy nurse I will defer to others as I am in the Army.

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Specializes in Field Medical Trauma.

I was a corpsman in the Navy for 5 years. Why would you want to try and enlist as a corpsman when you have a BSN? As mentioned in the first comment its extremely competitive to get in as a corpsman. When I was active duty we were required to complete tests in order to progress to higher ranks beyond E-3. These test were extremely competitive and only the top 12% progressed on.

The Navy is currently over populated with corpsman, even worse than the nurse corps is with nurses. I got lucky and joined when they were doing a troop surge in Iraq and Afghanistan . Right now there's a troop turn down and iv heard rumors that they are paying corpsman to leave the Navy. But then again it is a rumor but given that you have your BSN an enlistment would be a waste of your talents and time. As for the married thing goes.... in my opinion you should just stick it out as a civilian RN and go where your husband goes. Just my two cents

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I meant to say above my fiance was just commissioned as a special ops corpsman. Are they deployed often? And is it really that crowded in the navy?

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I meant to say above my fiance was just commissioned as a special ops corpsman. Are they deployed often? And is it really that crowded in the navy?

He was not commissioned as a special ops corpsman, it is an enlisted rate. He enlisted to do the USNAPC program. I am sure they deploy a lot especially if it is in the special OPs community.

Taken from wikipedia this is how long he will be gone for training...

  1. Navy Hospital Corpsman "A" School [Fort Sam Houston, TX] (14 weeks)
  2. Fleet Medical Training Battalion [Camp Pendleton, CA or Camp Lejeune, NC] (6 weeks)
  3. Marine Basic Reconnaissance Course [Camp Pendleton, CA and Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, CA] (12 weeks)
  4. Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) [Naval Air Station North Island, CA] (3 weeks)
  5. Marine Combatant Diver School [Panama City, FL] (8 weeks)
  6. Army Basic Airborne Course [Fort Benning, GA] (3 weeks)
  7. Army Special Operations Combatant Medic Course (SOCM) [Fort Bragg, NC] (26 weeks)
  8. Navy Special Operations Independent Duty Corpsman Course (SOIDC) [Fort Bragg, NC] (24 weeks

You do realize he will be gone a lot right?

Crowded? Yeah I guess you could call it that....most of the military is over-strength right now

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I meant to say above my fiance was just commissioned as a special ops corpsman. Are they deployed often? And is it really that crowded in the navy?

AspiringNurse19,

Just to be clear, all military branches have two routes you can go, commissioned officer and enlisted. The enlisted route does not require a 4-year degree. Hospital Corpsman is an enlisted rate (job). That means they are NOT an officer and have not had a commission.

In my opinion, the biggest differences are enlisted members get paid less and generally have less responsibility than commissioned officers.

Officers, on the other hand must have a 4-year degree and get commissioned, they don't enlist. It's the route I would imagine you mean to go when you are finished with your 4-year nursing degree.

Officer and enlisted relationships are frowned upon in the Navy. It's called fraternization. With that said, as long as you guys aren't working at the same command, I don't see it being a big deal.

When you say "deployed" do you mean stationed together? The Navy attempts to co-locate married couples together either on the same base or within the same area, as long as there are available billets at the location. Without being married, the Navy doesn't take into consideration your relationship status and will station you where they need you (that's not to say you guys may get lucky and have billets for commands in the same area).

If you really did mean "deploy", then you may deploy together if you guys happen to get stationed to the same ship. If he gets attached to a Marine unit (since he's special ops) he will deploy a lot more often and definitely without you.

Hope that helps!

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