Pediatric Exp & Loan Repayment

Specialties Government

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Specializes in Pediatric CTICU.

Hey guys! I’m sure there are a ton of posts on this subject! I’m a Peds Cardiac ICU nurse and my husband is a Physical Therapist and we’re in overwhelming debt from our degrees and are interested in enlisting to travel somewhere new and hopefully get some loans paid off. I was just curious in anyone’s experience as a pediatric nurse joining most likely the army and if anyone has experience with loan repayment? Unfortunately over 50% of mine is private and I don’t think they help with those, but with federal loans? Any information helps!

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Specializes in Operating room, ER, Home Health.

First of all you will commission not enlist; contact a healthcare recruiter for up to date bonuses. Don’t not contact the local enlisted recruiter, if you here anything about testing to see what you qualify for beat feet out of there. It will take time for the healthcare recruiter to get back with you.

As far as being a pediatric nurse in the military more than likely that will not happen since the military is changing what jobs military nurses have. Basically if the job does not involve taking care of service members in a combat zone that job will be a civilian nurse.

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On 12/20/2019 at 5:09 PM, Jeckrn1 said:

First of all you will commission not enlist; contact a healthcare recruiter for up to date bonuses. Don’t not contact the local enlisted recruiter, if you here anything about testing to see what you qualify for beat feet out of there. It will take time for the healthcare recruiter to get back with you.

As far as being a pediatric nurse in the military more than likely that will not happen since the military is changing what jobs military nurses have. Basically if the job does not involve taking care of service members in a combat zone that job will be a civilian nurse.

What is your source? Yes with DHA taking over they are moving towards mission readiness however there will still be needs for AD nurses for a while to come. When have you ever seen the government implement such drastic change that quick?

as far as being PICU, that’s a tough one. If you were NICU I would say chances were a lot higher but I don’t know if any MTFs that have a PICU. Maybe SAMMC or Walter Reed, that’s about it. Also know IF and that’s a huge IF there is PICU spots your job satisfaction will probably decrease drastically - you won’t get as sick of kids as you did civilian. But the money is great.

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Specializes in Operating room, ER, Home Health.

Yes, AD nurses will be needed. Right now 95% of the AD nurses where I work are assigned to FORSCOM units and not the hospital.

I work at Womack Army Medical Center on Ft Bragg. Everything is in flux right now and no one really knows what’s going to happen.

We have a NICU but do not have inpatient peds anymore so things are changing.

To find out if the services are still recruiting OB/GYN or Pediatric nurses you need to contact a healthcare recruiter.

The Army does not have a pediatric AOC.

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Hey @PediatricCTICURN!

I was actually in a very similar situation to you about a year ago and I know the frustration that student loans/debt can cause. I relocated to the current hospital that I work at now and worked in their peds CVICU. They have a large hire bonus and a relocation bonus. If you are interested shoot me an email and I can give you more information: [email protected]

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Specializes in Adult Critical Care.

Unfortunately, no military branch has an inpatient pediatric nursing specialty. There's pediatric NP (outpatient) and NICU.

If you are dead set on taking care of sick kids in the inpatient setting, the military really isn't for you. Even military bases that have PICUs or NICUs (San Antonio) lack any of the usual peds sub-specialty docs you need to treat really sick kids (peds neurosurg, peds CT, etc). You're going to be doing a lot of low-acuity asthma and croup in a military PICU stateside, and will be forced to deploy taking care of adults when abroad. From what I've seen, NICU nurses are deployed as either med-surg or outpatient. PICU nurses are deployed as 'general' ICU nurses; there are no PICUs in deployed settings.

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