oblc and army residency program: advice please

hopeful_army_NP · Jan 28, 2010

I will be going in March as well. I too have no prior military service but will be coming in as CPT which really makes me nervous. I am very excited though and look forward to the challenges and personal/professional growth this opportunity will bring.

Will you drive or fly to San An? I will be flying from St. Louis. My 1st duty station is Ft. Stewart, Ga which was my 2nd choice.

I will PM you some blog links re: OBLC. There is plenty of info on this board as well.

nebnurse · Jan 28, 2010

hey hopeful,

thanks for your help! i just got finished reading the "october" section of the first blog you listed. pretty good stuff. i want to be as prepared as possible, but it can definitely feel overwhelming having no prior service. i hope we have a good class, im looking forward to it.

i am driving out from southern california. i am assigned to fort hood and i have friends in texas so im hoping to leave a couple weeks early, spend some time with friends, and get the lay of the land between fort hood/fort sam. let me know when youll be in the area.

a couple questions:

in the blog, the girl mentioned that we can switch assignment stations with anyone who is our same rank... have you heard of that?

she also mentions that if we choose our specialty course guarantee, we owe the army another year of service... have you heard of that? not sure that would apply to you being an NP.

thanks for your help!

-ben

hopeful_army_NP · Jan 28, 2010

I will most likely get to Texas just a day or 2 early. I am leaving my spouse and children in St. louis for the first time so I don't want to leave too early :-). Yes I have heard that you can swith assignments if the person is same rank and same experience level.

As fas as the extra year I have not heard of it but I am sure that was was accurate information. There are many experience people of this boar that will probably answer it for you.

Editorial Team / Moderator · Jan 28, 2010

Ben -- just wanted to say congrats on graduation and passing your NCLEX! :)

Rose3721 · Jan 29, 2010

I'm actually at Ft Hood in the Nurse in Transition program, formerly known as the Army Nurse Residency program. It's been renamed. :) Your info about switching assignments is correct, you can switch with someone that is also a new nurse but only if you and the other nurse have not shipped any household goods yet. If you have already shipped household goods to your assignment you can no longer swap. Where were you hoping on swapping to? I wouldn't show up to OBLC early, really no reason to and you'll have to pay out of pocket for the extra hotel stay. I showed up a day early and was told that I had to pay for my own room until the next day. The first day of OBLC consists of signing in (you just wear your normal clothes) and getting your lodging assignment and that's it. So I signed in at 0700 and had the rest of the day to watch TV. :)

For the course guarantee question- You should pick your specialty course your first year here at Hood. You will not be sent to the course until you have been at Ft Hood for a full year. You incur a year ADSO for the specialty course but it is served concurrently with your original commitment. So if you owe 3 years, you serve 1 then go to your course, you serve that extra year at the same time that you're serving the 2 years you have left on your original contract. So the extra year really doesn't matter or affect you in any way. But I can tell you 100% that you will not be sent to your course until after your first year. I've been here since September and we were just told this by our Senior Rater last month. You should also know that there are 30 of us here now in the Nurse Transition program, all wishing to attend a specialty course. We should probably exchange emails. :)

The NTP does not vary based on prior service. We are all new nurses and attend the same training and have the same requirements. We rotated throught all the outlying clinics on post, the clinics within the hospital and pretty much every floor of the hospital for 10 weeks. I start my 6 week preceptorship on the med/surg floor next week. After that I will do a 6 week preceptorship on the Mother Baby floor. We were told that we will all be placed on either the mother baby or the med/surg floor for the first year. Hope this helped!!

nebnurse · Jan 29, 2010

rose,

thanks so much for the information. everything you are saying is about what i am expecting more or less. i was told that it could be up to 2 years before i attend my course, although i am very much hoping it is sooner. i have already picked mine. ICU is the only specialty that has ever interested me and i am hopeful to get there asap of course, along with everyone else im sure.

question: do the male nurses have to be assigned to mother/baby??? definitely NOT my thing lol.

question: is it a fairly typical 3 twelve-hour shift workweek? is there an extra eight-hour shift added on every other week? what sort of "add-on" duties will i be expected to perform in addition to my shiftwork? will they make me work nights? i really dont know how i will pull off nights, that was a major fear going in.

question: regarding advanced degrees (CRNA), have you heard anything about being difficult to apply to a CRNA program if i decide to continue on in the army after 3 years? that has been my goal going in, and if i like the army i will want to stay and do it on their dime, but not if i have to wait years to get in. just curious if youve heard anything.

question: my recruiter said that all of my expenses (gas/lodging) will be reimbursed. i plan on taking about 4 days to get down there. she also said i dont have to stay in motel 6 hahahah but that the army will reimburse wherever i decide to stay. is that true? im not planning on staying 5-star lol.

question: do you feel like the NTP is preparing you well? i am a new grad and direct-commissionee, so i feel like i have a LOT to learn and catch up on... the NTP was one of the things i liked because they said i will receive a mentor and will not be released to teh wolves until they think i am capable. true?

oh and i am not going to stay in hotels once i get there... i have a bunch of friends in texas, so i will be staying with them and just kind of seeing the sites and getting the lay of the land while im there... sort of a mini-vacation.

thank you SO much for your help, id love to keep in touch... if you think of anything else i might want to know, please let me know.

thanks!

-ben

nebnurse · Jan 29, 2010

thanks!! keep in touch!

Rose3721 · Jan 30, 2010

If I remember correctly, you are allotted $100 per day of travel and this is supposed to cover your meals and hotel, which can be quite a stretch, You will file a travel voucher once you get to Ft Hood and get that money back then along with gas money.

As far as it goes with males and the Mother Baby floor, gender is not looked at when making floor assignments. I'm a girl but I absolutely HATE mother baby, I personally feel like it's a waste of my degree. Healthy moms, healthy babies= no skills for me besides assessments. Whether you get assigned there or not you will do a 6 week rotation on that floor so prepare yourself. I'm right there with ya. I'd rather work in a clinic than MBU. The director of the NTP here is a CNS in child maternal health so be careful what you say about MBU to her, that's her love. :)

I think that the NTP is a good idea but it wasn't executed very well for my group. We are basically working out the kinks for you guys. :) We did too much time in outpatient clinics where all we did all day was take vitals, for 5 weeks. I enjoyed rotating through the hospital, ICU, NICU, OR, Med/surg, L&D, MBU, ED. You make a lot of contacts within the hospital that can come in handy later. We're all just frustrated because we've been here since September and they still haven't told us where we're going to be assigned. That's probably my main complaint because that's all I cared about finding out. :)

You will have to work some nights. It sucks. My husband is deployed and I have a 5 year old so I hate nights. But you make it work. Why are you concerned about nights? Normal schedule is that in a 2 week period you work 6 12s and 1 8. Every other weekend. You should get major holidays off while you're in the program as well, which was nice. While we rotated around the hospital we worked 8 hr shifts, 0700-1500, except for the last few weeks when we started doing some 12s.

You will not be allowed to take leave while in the program so be prepared for that. We weren't told that prior to arriving and it was a nasty suprise. As far as "add on" duties go, we've been tasked to run like 3 different committees for different events. We had to plan and execute the Army Nurse Corps Birthday celebration dinner, stuff like that. For CRNA, they'll talk more about that at OBLC. You can start the paperwork for that soon after geting here with the expectation that you'll go in a couple of years. But you need to have taken your GREs before you apply.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

nebnurse · Jan 30, 2010

wow thanks for the info!!

one more question: my recruiter told me i can stay in temporary housing at fort hood for up to 6 months for free while i am searching for a place to live, and that i will still collect my housing allowance in my paycheck. sounds too good to be true...?

Lindzh · Jan 30, 2010

I don't know about officer's, as I am just starting the application process, but my husband is enlisted, and when we PCS'ed, we were allowed 10 days REIMBURSED temporary housing until we had to pay out of pocket. I don't know about Ft Hood, but at Ft Bragg, the temporary housing isn't exactly where you would want to stay any longer than you have to. Just my experience. Hopefully someone can reply from the officer perspective. But most likely yes, it is too good to be true.

jeckrn, BSN, RN · Jan 30, 2010

it is 10 days for officers also.