Nurse Corps Reserves, Which Branch of Military?

[newinsp]

I am currently going into my junior year in the nursing program at my school, and i know i have time to decide, but i was thinking about joining the military as a nurse corp reserve. I have a good amount of information from the various websites but would like to see if anyone here had more information about which branch they would recommend etc.

Thanks in advance!!

[KEFLINK]

Go to recruiting stations of the various branches and ask about opportunities for new grads and if they will accept you as a reservist. I was active duty Air Force as a newer nurse and loved it. It depends on what you might want to do, and if there is a reserve unit near you. We have both an Army and Air Force reserve unit in my town but only one has a medical branch, so it is important to discover this too. All the branches of the military have their specialties and some reserve units are limited to certain specialties too

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

We moved your thread to our Military Nursing forum. Good luck to you.

[jfratian, DNP, RN, CRNA]

The 3 branches are very similar. It's probably 80% the same as civilian nursing when not deployed. As far as the differences, it largely has a lot to do with tradition, available jobs, and locations of bases.

If you want flight nursing, then you need to do Air Force. Other branches use some air-evac, but the AF has the most slots. The Navy has a small number of ship postings for nurses, although the vast majority of Navy nurses serve on land. The Army has a brigade nurse role that enables you to work along side front-line troops; you'll get whatever training your soldiers are getting (i.e. airborne).

I would contact recruiters from all 3 branches and work them against each other. Don't tell them you're considering other branches, but find out what the current recruiting climate is in each (bonuses, loan repayment, number of positions open, etc). One of the most important questions you need to ask (if you want to specialize) is: what is the process for a new grad in med-surg transitioning to ICU or ER? The Air Force has this ridiculous 12 month TDY/fellowship that comes with all sorts of 'strings.' I think the Navy still does old fashioned on-the-job training. I'm not sure about the Army.