msmoe16

Hello, I am a travel nurse with 2 years experience and I am currently working on my RN to BSN.I want to know if the Army is paying off student loans to nurses who join up? I will have almost 50k in student loans after I graduate. Is there a difference in repayment in active duty vs reserves? Also, if anyone knows, does the Army have a PMHNP program they put their nurses through? What are the stipulations/benefits of it?

Man, after reading this I am starting to reconsider travel nursing. Especially being a male.

Ya, I'm not taking it. I am taking Neds advice and have contacted supplemental and world wide to get some more opportunities. American mobile has a couple well paying opportunities for me but they're in less than ideal locations. So we shall see!

Ok. So I got my first contract offer from my recruiter at American Mobile. It is for San Diego at a mental health clinic. I am an ADN with 1 year of psych experience only. I had heard California was where the big money was in travel nursing... so, I was disappointed when I heard the numbers. I was told my net take home would be 750 a week while working three 12 hour shifts (7pm - 7am) a week. That is including the "food stipend." I could choose to take 2400 a month for housing or live in company housing. This pay is less than I am making at the state hospital I work at now. What do y'all think? Does this sound right?

That's incredible! I'm far more excited for my contract now. I work at a state hospital so I think that contributes to the large patient load. Most of the contracts I'm seeing seem to be for state psych hospitals in California as well. Hopefully they have the same ratios. The community hospital in San Bernadino seems especially needy for RN's so I will probably end up there. Thanks for the info!

I'm about to start travel nursing and my first contract will most likely be in California. I'm currently a psych nurse in a state hospital in Texas and I am usually the only RN on my unit with 32 to 40 patients under my care. I had heard California had nursing ratio laws and when I looked it up, I was amazed to see it say there is 1:6 ratio for psych. That is dramatically different than what I am exposed to here. Is this ratio how it really is for psych or is this more of a recommendation that is never actually met? Can any California nurses confirm?

Yes. I'm working on it now, but it's still about a year away.

"Unfortunately, due to an operational change, the Army has suspended accepting ASN's at this time. The Surgeon General requires that all nurses hold a BSN prior to applying." Welp, the website was wrong.

Thanks pixie, just sent them an email. I'll let you know what they say.

RN in San Antonio here. Started at 60k a year. Many of my classmates started at 45k'ish annually. Though the cost of living here is very low.

I've been contemplating going back into the military and I see on goarmy.com that the Army accepts associate degree RN's and commissions them for 66c. However, I've tried contacting an AMEDD recruiter twice now and can't get past the secretary because he says "The website is wrong, you must have a bachelors degree." I fully intend on getting my bachelors degree, but it'd be nice to be able to commission now. Is the secretary clueless or is goarmy.com wrong? Any reservists out there? What's your experience been like? Is it possible to do all of your reserve time for the year in one clump, so that I could travel nurse the other 10 or so months out of the year?

I hear you. I'm especially fearful for my gf, being that that she's ICU. A lot could go wrong there.

Ah, gotcha! I'm a penny pincher, my girlfriend on the other hand...

Thank you for your answer. So, financially, you're saying I'd have to wait until retirement age as a staff nurse to do just as well as I could be doing right now as a travel nurse? That's a huge difference! I'm more interested in the money, my girlfriends more interested in the lifestyle. But, I grew up a military brat, so moving around isn't a foreign concept to me. Thanks again, Ned!

I work in a state psych hospital. I'd say the ratio of the LGBTQI population in my hospital is quite a bit higher than it is out in the real world.