Navy vs. Air Force

[Ricee]

I am 31, and just passed boards. I am applying for RN to BSN school, and accepted a position at a magnet hospital.

I was in contact at the beginning of my nursing school with a Navy recruiter looking to hopefully join when I was done. During school there have been 3 different recruiters, and the last time I attempted to seek information (where to work to gain experience, if schools look better then others), I have not received a response. It has only been a week, and I'm not sure if they are not interested in me as a candidate, or if I'm still too far out for them to really talk to, but I figured I may want to explore other branches.

Background information: Starting nursing school I had around 70 credits. My GPA was not strong from when I first went to college out of high school. When I finished Nursing school my GPA was not strong, around 2-2.5 (our grading scale was 95-100=A, 87-94=B, 79-86=C, below 79 failing). I read a post stating the military takes into consideration unconventional grading scales (not sure if there is any truth?). My plan to make myself more valuable of a candidate was to work in a critical care unit, as I finished my RN to BSN. It looks like it'll take me 1-2 years since I will be working during this time.

My husband was in the service for almost 10 years (medical discharge on the enlisted side), so I am aware the information you get from recruiters and what actually happens may not match up, so I was hoping to hear from some of you about your experience, what to actually expect? Advice? Specialities? Or if I'm waisting my time since I haven't got a responses and it seems I'm only reaching out to recruiters instead of them reaching out to me.

Thank you in advance for reading my really long post, and any information/advice. I really appreciate your time.

[Xance]

I believe we are losing the forest for the trees. I did not point out individual percentage of time deployed nor did I mention percentage of deployed personnel. I said from what I have seen I have noticed more Army RN's than other branches and I did quantify that by saying that is based upon my perspective. It's interesting to see that more RN's as a percentage are deployed in the smaller Nurse Corps, but I again refer you to my comment that I figure a majority of those would be on ships. The Mercy and Comfort both hold hundreds of RN's each when deployed and large ships like Carriers and LHD's also have RN's aboard. I'm an RN and aboard a ship, so all of that was based upon my own personal experience and observations. To the OP, take that study into consideration that jfratian found into your decision as to how much you prefer to be deployed based upon probabilities, it might be helpful.

[anchorRN, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN]

For the Navy, the Comfort and the Mercy are more like luxury cruises and only get activated to "deploy" on humanitarian missions and occasionally disasters (i.e. the Dominican Republic earthquake). The RN's assigned to those ships are only TAD, not ship's company. As for LHD's, there is no RN stationed on that ship, but FST's cover the medical needs on those ships when they are underway/deployed. FST's are the LIFE in the nurse corps, because you are eligible for your surface warfare pin (SWMDO) (unlike the Mercy or the Comfort). The only true ship's company RN is on a carrier. I was the NIMITZ's ship's nurse for 2 years. Loved my tour but i was the only RN on board. We did have a CRNA that would come to the ship TAD when we were underway or deployed. So in the Navy, since there are only 11 aircraft carriers, only 11 RN's at one time are actually stationed on a ship (the smaller ships use IDCs/corpsman, as you probably know). For the most part the Navy's Nurse Corps are placed in the bigger Naval Hospitals (Portsmouth, San Diego, Bethesda) and you work just as you would as a civilian RN. There are opportunities to deploy that come up often, but overall my experience in the navy (besides my 2 year tour on the NIMITZ and the deployment to Afghanistan) was no different than my civilian ICU RN job. As you make rank, those deployment/ship opportunities go away as they expect O4 and higher RN's to take on more of an administrative role so you end up being a unit manager in a hospital and head of several mundane committees. That was the biggest reason I got out, I knew I would hate sitting behind a desk the rest of my career in the Navy.

[PollywogNP, ADN, BSN, MSN, LPN, NP]

18 hours ago, anchorRN said:

For the Navy, the Comfort and the Mercy are more like luxury cruises and only get activated to "deploy" on humanitarian missions and occasionally disasters

Luxury cruises? Where did you get that idea? Did you serve on either hospital ship?

[Xance]

@anchorRN There aren't any RN's on LHD's? I was on the Essex years ago and I thought I remember a few of the officers there in the Nurse Corps. Perhaps I was mistaken as the symbols for each respective medical corps look quite similar at a distance.

[Shaycb7]

7 hours ago, PollywogNP said:

Luxury cruises? Where did you get that idea? Did you serve on either hospital ship?

I wondered the same thing my sister was on the mercy she said it was better than being on a carrier but wouldn’t call it a luxury cruise lol. I saw her Rack definitely not luxury LOL

[anchorRN, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN]

10 hours ago, Xance said:

@anchorRN There aren't any RN's on LHD's? I was on the Essex years ago and I thought I remember a few of the officers there in the Nurse Corps. Perhaps I was mistaken as the symbols for each respective medical corps look quite similar at a distance.

There are RNs on LHDs but they are only TAD there. They are part of a FST (Fleet Surgical Team) that are assigned a group of ships and deploy/go underway when they do. Otherwise they are shore based. It’s actually a good gig because unlike being a ship’s company nurse like on a carrier, you don’t have to go through the work up cycle which was a complete nightmare for me. Hope that makes sense. Otherwise LHDs have IDCs and corpsman on there as ships company.

[anchorRN, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN]

10 hours ago, PollywogNP said:

Luxury cruises? Where did you get that idea? Did you serve on either hospital ship?

No but I did serve as ship’s nurse on a carrier for 2 years and I assure you that being stationed on a warship is completely different than being TAD to a hospital ship. I had to go through every workup cycle prior to deployment (something hospital ship RNs don’t have a clue about). It is a complete nightmare. I was responsible for the medical department’s participation in about 8 inspections including CART I, II, and III, TSTA/FEP, COMPUTEX, CQ’s, etc. if any of these were failed then the ship couldn’t be certified to deploy (which is a huge stressful deal). So yes I consider the Comfort/Mercy luxury cruises. It was a tough job but I actually liked being in the fleet around real surface warfare officers and crew, instead of being stuck around mostly other doctors and nurses onboard.

[PollywogNP, ADN, BSN, MSN, LPN, NP]

8 hours ago, anchorRN said:

No but I did serve as ship’s nurse on a carrier for 2 years and I assure you that being stationed on a warship is completely different than being TAD to a hospital ship. I had to go through every workup cycle prior to deployment (something hospital ship RNs don’t have a clue about).

Ok so you actually do not know what it is really like to serve on either hospital ship. It was not a lot of fun getting deployed (they did not call it TAD), Gulf War/Desert Shield we worked 6 weeks straight/12+ hours or more without a day off. Daily drills/Mass Cass drills weekly complete with moulage etc & getting everything out of pallets & putting together everything from the chairs our butts went on to EKG machine (corpsman & I put the handles/wheels etc, the ship was filthy with fine, powder like coal dust from Baltimore harbor. I have a friend who was on Comfort with me, was recalled back on Comfort for Haitian refugee crisis to Gitmo, went on 6 month humanitarian cruise to Indonesia on Mercy, then back on Comfort for the Haitian earthquake. She would also disagree heartily with you that any of the times she served on hospital ships equate a "luxury cruise".

The mission of grey hulls/carriers & battleships etc is different than hospital ships & require different types of training but to say they were luxury cruises is a disservice to those sailors who have worked on hospital ships. Have you even been/taken a tour of either ship?

[anchorRN, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN]

31 minutes ago, PollywogNP said:

Ok so you actually do not know what it is really like to serve on either hospital ship. It was not a lot of fun getting deployed (they did not call it TAD), Gulf War/Desert Shield we worked 6 weeks straight/12+ hours or more without a day off. Daily drills/Mass Cass drills weekly complete with moulage etc & getting everything out of pallets & putting together everything from the chairs our butts went on to EKG machine (corpsman & I put the handles/wheels etc, the ship was filthy with fine, powder like coal dust from Baltimore harbor. I have a friend who was on Comfort with me, was recalled back on Comfort for Haitian refugee crisis to Gitmo, went on 6 month humanitarian cruise to Indonesia on Mercy, then back on Comfort for the Haitian earthquake. She would also disagree heartily with you that any of the times she served on hospital ships equate a "luxury cruise".

The mission of grey hulls/carriers & battleships etc is different than hospital ships & require different types of training but to say they were luxury cruises is a disservice to those sailors who have worked on hospital ships. Have you even been/taken a tour of either ship?

No offense intended. But I do stand by my comment.

[PollywogNP, ADN, BSN, MSN, LPN, NP]

39 minutes ago, anchorRN said:

No offense intended. But I do stand by my comment.

You can't. You have no basis for it. You have never set foot on a hospital ship.

[anchorRN, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN]

I can and do.

[Xance]

I currently serve on white hulled ships and I do have to say that the standard of living on those ships are far higher than when I was on the Essex. However I have not worked aboard either of the hospital ships as I am a contract sailor and the Comfort/Mercy are both crewed by MSC sailors so I can't go aboard those. The mission of the hospital ships are quite different than any grey hulled ship, and it should then be expected that the living conditions aboard either one are different. By no means would I call living aboard any ship (save a luxury cruise ship lol) a 'luxury cruise' and to do so would dismiss the challenge of living at sea for any ship for the sailors.