Navy Reserve Nurse- when to join?

PG2018 · Jun 25, 2014

As I understand it, experience and your MSN will provide you with constructive credit toward grade. That mean you could come in at a higher rank and thus more income. Call a USNR officer and/or health professions recruiter. I think they like their applications submitted before September. I've researched USNR quite heavily and out of curiosity my fiance and I put in a call today with USN as we were both sitting on the couch bouncing back and forth the prospects of active duty.

I'm on the fence. All of the branches have pros and cons, and I'm not totally certain which I want to do!

LewisGarza · Jun 27, 2014

I have a BSN and am currently working towards my MSN in education. I am currently a med-surg nurse.
I am thinking of joining the reserves after I have earned my Masters degree. Are there any advantages to having a Masters degree in the reserves, or should I just try to join now?

If you are looking to join, get your application started ASAP (STAT) and submitted by October 2014. Genarally, if you graduate from with an MSN, you disqualiffy yourself from a BSN position. As of Today, we do not have a recruitment goal for Nurse Education reserve or active.

jfratian, DNP, RN, CRNA · Jun 27, 2014

Not to try and steal you away, but the Air Force allows you to serve in multiple roles as an MSN. We fill jobs based on rank and experience. As someone without military experience, you will almost certainly start out at the bedside (rather than management or nursing ed). The MSN would give you 24 months of constructive credit. I would bet you'd be close to O-3 by the time you factor-in your RN experience too; you won't get that masters credit if you finish the MSN after you join.

Look at the Army too. I tell anybody who is interested in joining to look at all 3 branches and weigh the benefits/costs for their individual situations. Talk to recruiters from each branch first, but I bet the better option is to wait and join with the education already done. For AF NC, you must have an MSN to make O-5; it really helps put you over-the-top for your O-4 board too.

RN1023 · Jun 28, 2014

I think I remember reading that I was too old for Army and Air Force. Does anyone know the age cut off? I know for the Navy it's 40.

LewisGarza · Jun 28, 2014

Our age limit is 42. Have to swear in before 42.

jfratian, DNP, RN, CRNA · Jun 28, 2014

The max age for the Air Force is also 42. However, if you were prior enlisted you may be able to join after that. The kicker is they want everyone to have the theoretical ability to serve their 20 years before the mandatory retirement age of 62.

Georgiaobnurse · Jul 11, 2014

I spoke to an Air Force recruiter this week who stated age limit is 48 for nurses????

jeckrn, BSN, RN · Jul 11, 2014

I spoke to an Air Force recruiter this week who stated age limit is 48 for nurses????

You would need a age waiver for that since you have to be able to complete your 20 years before you are 62. Waivers are still possible but hard to come by into days environment.

nurse2033, MSN, RN · Jul 11, 2014

I spoke to an Air Force recruiter this week who stated age limit is 48 for nurses????

Correct, 48

504 medic · Jul 11, 2014

Since National Guard/Air Guard units are state oriented, they can have higher age cutoffs than the federally based Reserves/AD. It varies state to state, job to job...they won't take a 50 y/o fuel handler, but they will take a 50 y/o cardiac surgeon with oodles of experience. But most of the medical jobs are with the Reserves Component.

NavyNurseCorpsPM1 · Jul 12, 2014

Hello Chief,

I am going to piggy-back on and answer some concerns I am seeing, but try to clarify a few things if that is okay...call me anytime if you need.

RN1023...hello and hope this helps shed some light.

First, I see a lot of people answering questions, but not a lot of clarity regarding Active Duty vs Reserves...I am going to stay with the Reserve side because your title sort of suggests that is where the interest lies...

1. We are not currently recruiting for either Medical Surgical or Education for the Reserve Navy Nurse Corps. I suspect that this will change for Medical Surgical for FY16 (October 1, 2015), but not for this current year. If you are truly interested in joining I suggest still reaching out to a recruiter and working your kit to be able to submit, but not until sometime in the early part of next year. We do not accept COMPLETED applications until we open the programs, and this date is always Oct 1 of the year we are looking towards. If this is confusing let me know.

2. MSN in Education is a great thing and congratulations. However, Chief is correct and we do not recruit to this in either Active Duty or Reserve Navy Nursing.

3. 42 is our cutoff age for ACTIVE Duty. For RESERVE we will do an age waiver up to age 47 and you must commission by age 48. For the Navy there is no consideration for prior time...it is a calendar year. We reserve the right to modify that in the future, but right now this is our policy. I always refer people to the OPNAV 1120.7A as it has our most current guidelines.

By all means please search out the best fit and choice. My sincere suggestion though is that if someone cannot provide an instruction or something in writing, then take things with a grain of salt.

Hope this helps, and don't mind the capital letters. I have found that there is a lot of responding that tends to muddle the difference between Active and Reserve, so I just use those to stress important differences.

Let me know if you have any additional questions about Navy Reserve Nursing. I cannot speak for any of the other services, but I am one of the Navy Nurse Corps Program Managers, so I know our policies well and can find answers out for you if needed.

Ciao Ciao,

LT, NC, USN