Nurse Corps Question

The Army is not currently recruiting new grads. You should really speak with healthcare recruiters to get the current picture, but the military is drawing down (decreasing numbers) which has a definite effect on nursing needs. The military is very competitive right now. I would not count on Uncle Sam to pay your student loans or give you a sign-on bonus. The simple fact is that they have more than enough candidates vying for limited spots, meaning that the military does not have a lot need to incentive commissioning. But things are always changing!

If you want to do military nursing as a new grad, then you have to make peace with doing med-surg nursing for a while (2-3 years). If you really want to do something else right away, then get a few years of civilian experience first. If you do OR, ICU, or ER on the civilian side, make sure you do it at a level one trauma center; that makes sure you get experience with sicker patients.

Honestly, all three branches are pretty much the same. The deployment schedule for the Air Force seems the better (6 months potentially deployed and 12 months off) option to me. However, the day to day grind for the average bedside nurse is pretty similar across the board. My big gripe is that the average acuity seen at a military hospital is quite low; you don't get very sick patients when not deployed (all the more reason to get civilian experience first).

I would imagine the sign-on bonuses and/or loan repayment stick around, but you never know. It gets people to sign for longer periods of time (which ultimately saves the government in terms of turnover). In my limited military nursing experience, I have found that it is that it is a very big game of 'how many years of my life can I exchange for cash, extra training, or education.' You want to re-train as an ICU nurse? Commit 5 years extra and we'll send you to a fellowship. Want to get your master's? Give us 2 years to use tuition assistance. Are you a med-surg nurse and want to become a CRNA? Give us 12 years (ICU fellowship+ICU exp+ AFIT obligation).

Officers don't enlist, we commission. You must at least have a BSN to commission. The Army is the only branch that has enlisted nurses that are LPNs/LVNs.

You need to learn the difference between commissioning (starting as an O1 to O3) and enlisting (starting as an E3 or E4). You can enlist with a BSN or MSN, but you won't practice as a nurse. You'll be practicing at a CNA II or EMT-B level; your pay will reflect that too (lower pay).

You commission because you competed against others and won that position. You don't automatically get it for having a college degree. We were told in COT that 40% of the enlisted Air Force has at least a bachelor's degree.

Nobody in the airforce starts off as an NCO (E-5 or above). It doesn't matter if you have a PhD. I'm pretty sure the other branches are the same.