Navy Reserve vs. AF Reserve

jfratian, DNP, RN, CRNA · Mar 22, 2023

I'm in the Air Force. I'd, say the job of an OR nurse is largely the same in all 3 military branches. It's pretty much 80% the same as civilian OR nursing. The military gives you additional training and sends you to different locations to do your job.

As to which one to pick, I think you'd have a very similar experience in each branch. I would try to find which reserves bases are closest to your house and go with that one. You'll be going there at least one weekend a month, and that travel gets old if it's far away.

daniel4navy · Apr 14, 2023

DomiMichel24, the Navy yearly bonus for this quarter for med/surg nurse is $15k, psych $17k, per-op $20k, ICU $25k. you will be better off going as an OR nurse. However, you will need to be credentialed as an OR nurse by the Navy, which requires you to have worked min of 144 hrs as an OR nurse in the last 12 months. Navy has much bigger medical section than other branches. Airforce mostly has flight nursing. You can become a flight nurse if Airforce accepts your OR experience as critical care experience. I tried Airforce 2 yrs ago as psych nurse but I was turned down. But again, things change yearly with the military. With Navy, you will have more advancement opportunities. In Navy, You can do hospital work or field work (as an attachment to a Marines group). Please let know if you have anymore questions.

jfratian, DNP, RN, CRNA · Apr 14, 2023

I'm not sure how big the entire medical force is in each branch (That would include things like corpsmen, physicians, pharmacists, etc.). However, the Navy and Air Force nurse corps are about the same size (around 4000 nurses each). The Army is by far the largest (around 10k nurses). However, I don't think you should equate size with level of opportunity.

Also, all 3 branches have overlapping opportunities. The vast majority of nurses in all 3 branches work in a traditional hospital framework doing OR, ER, ICU, etc. It just might be located in a facility in another country.

As for special jobs, all 3 branches have their own flavor. For example, the Navy and the Army have flight nursing jobs. The Army has GHOST teams that support special forces. The Air Force has SOST teams that do the same thing. The current paradigm is tri-service. These days you're deployed with people from all 3 branches; my most recent Afghanistan deployment was that way.