Nursing with the Canadian Forces?

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Does anybody have any experience as a Nursing Officer with the Canadian Forces?

I am considering applying as an officer (and as a result being funded) and am extremely interested in talking with anyone who has experience with the Canadian Forces.

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Many years ago I worked in the armed forces hospital in Ottawa. The nurses were respected and treated with dignity. If I was an R.N.(I'm an RPN/RNA) I would have entered the forces...Looks real good on a resume

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My cousin is a recruiter for the army, he can hook you up if you're interested (lord knows he's always trying to recruit me).

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Hey there adrienurse,

I am interested in seeing what they have to offer as well, I have a friend who was saying her was interested but I know nothing about it.

Erin

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Hey,

Good to see that there's a thread on this topic. I'm in the accelerated-track program at the U of Calgary and I'm going to apply to the CF in the hope that I'll be acceted as a NUR by the Air Force. I visited a recruiting office in Edmonton over the summer before I began my program this past September and was told that the commitment is lengthy -- nine years if you go ROTP, and seven if you go DEO. You may want to confirm this just in case I've screwed up my facts, but I do recall that the commitment is a long one. I'll be applying for direct entry since I won't have time to do basic before my program ends, but I think ROTP is sensible if you're in a four-year program. I was in the militia many years ago (qualified infantry) and saw it as a good way to find out if the military is for you ... I think many nursing students work as medics (this is an NCM position) with a medical company in the Reserves too, so this might also be an option for you.

I have to get more info myself such as when I should submit all my paperwork, and if I latch onto anything else that might be helpful to you, I'll post it here. Best of luck to you! :)

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Hi again ... there's an article in an issue of "Alberta RN" about nursing in the CF. It's from the fall of 2003, can't remember which month. Anyway, I'm in clinical at Foothills hospital, so when I go back this week I'll pop into the Medical library and find out which month it was and report back here. "Alberta RN" might also have a website on which you can locate this article ...

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Does anybody have any experience as a Nursing Officer with the Canadian Forces?

I am considering applying as an officer (and as a result being funded) and am extremely interested in talking with anyone who has experience with the Canadian Forces.

I know a couple of the students in class are doing what you're thinking of. They're happy with the funding, not so happy with not having a summer break.

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Hey RNBN2B...I'm doing my clinical out at Foothills too....what unit are you on???

Kim

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.
Hi again ... there's an article in an issue of "Alberta RN" about nursing in the CF. It's from the fall of 2003, can't remember which month. Anyway, I'm in clinical at Foothills hospital, so when I go back this week I'll pop into the Medical library and find out which month it was and report back here. "Alberta RN" might also have a website on which you can locate this article ...

I wouldn't make too much of an effort trying to find the article from Alberta RN. It didn't offer much information on how to become a military nurse, or even really about what military nurses do. It was essentially a short profile of three nurses from Edmonton Garrison.

Now that the Canadian Forces no longer are running their own hospitals other than the National Defence Medical Centre in Ottawa, most CF nurses are working part time in ERs of civilian hospitals near their bases to maintain their nursing skills (as are many of the physicians), working in the MIR (Medical Inspection Room = equivalent of walk in clinic) providing care for generally healthy young people and deploying to far-flung hot-spots as peace keepers.

The best thing would be to talk to a recruiter or check out the website http://www.dnd.ca careers section.

Call me a lifelong Military Dependent.

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I was just at the Ryerson Nursing fair and was really discrouraged by most of the hospitals and recruiters there except for the armed forces. They really caught my interest. I'm now going to be looking seriously into what they have to offer. I keep hearing the good... what's the bad side???

From what I understood that the recruiter told me is that they'll pay for the remainder of my education (1 year) at my current University, so tuition and books and then give me $2000 a month allowance for living expenses. In return I need to give them two years service for every year they've paid for in school - so I'd owe them 2 years. I'd have to take physical training (I don't know what that involves yet) and bilingual training (I am already bilingual) as well as some other trainings. This all looks pretty good for me since no one else wants to give me a job! I'm going to the recruitment office sometime this week to find out more. Can someone else shed some light on this for me? Thanks

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.

Refer to my previous post. You could do a lot worse than join the military. One of my friends is a retired military nurse. She was lucky enough to be trained as a nurse-midwife while in the military and she and her husband lived in Germany for four years. Now she's got a not-too-rich-but-still-okay pension and has changed careers to be a landscaper. (What a leap!) When my daughter was considering medical school DH and I both encouraged her to think about going through the Forces. Then she changed her mind and decided to be a molecular biologist and didn't want to be involved in the potential development of bioweapons. So she's got huge debts and still isn't making a living wage... I say, look into it and if there isn't anything absolutely abhorent to you then go for it.

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Well, the postings aren't so exotic any more. Germany was closed in the early '90s.

But there are the peacekeeping missions to look forward to. I've known medics who loved it. Work with local population and not just service personnel.

The main thing to consider is: do you enjoy routine, can you follow an order without asking why?

I've know mainly medics (NCO). They finished training, got LPN license, and went on to OR Tech, or Ortho Techs.

So, consider the Reserves before signing on the dotted line.

Husbands been in for 26 year, and some days are sheer dog doo...

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