Bratapfel

Hope I’m not too late here. Definitely treated like a child on a med surg floor. Absolutely do not come in as a med surg nurse especially with your background. I would think any ER experience would count because hell 99% of our ERs aren’t anywhere near a trauma center. I would push on that and really question / find it in writing that yours couldn’t count. Note that if you come in as an ER or ICU nurse, they are very separate and you will be stuck with that identifier for a while because both are so critically manned. You can’t just pop from ER to ICU or cath lab etc. if you’re ER you are ER. Also some schools now take ER experience for CRNA so I wouldn’t sweat that too much. Honestly, do not come in as med surg. You will have to do 1-2 years at your base before applying to the ER/ICU fellowship (6month long training with only 2-3 start dates a year), and then you will get to be an ER or ICU nurse (where you actually are one right now!) if you have your CEN you can get a retention bonus (for ER/ICU if you sign for 6 years it’s 35k a YEAR), if you take the ascension bonus (sign on bonus) you won’t be eligible for the retention until your original commitment is up.

So as a single officer in the AF (conus) you will be REQUIRED to live off base. Base housing is for people with wives/families. You do get BAH (basic housing allowance) which changes with your location. You will certainly deploy a LOT more as an ICU nurse. Flight nursing in the AF is not like most flight on the outside - think super basic med surg in the sky. Super stable. ICU nurses go CCATT (critical care air transport team) and you will deploy even more as a CCATT nurse (do note that is an “additional” duty, you are an ICU nurse that is CCATT certified, not a “CCATT nurse”) As far as your dogs, people have made it work and some people were unable to. Personally the amount of stress trying to find the right people to take care of them wherever you are stationed at whatever notice would be hell for me. You have to think you could be stationed somewhere far from family and friends and deployments can be 6+ months. It may work 99% of the time but what about that 1 time it doesn’t?

With the amount of time, energy, and stress it would take you should just put all of that into putting a great package together and getting the military to send you to grad school instead. I was working med surg AD AF with another nurse who was going for mental health NP. She literally looked like death nearly every day. Rotating nights/days, homework.. and everything else life threw at her.

I don’t think Bigcat was focusing on the credit towards retirement (although that may have been a point) but more so as the prior enlisted identifier (O1E, O2E, O3E). I’m not 100% sure on the amount of years but 4yrs and 1day definitely sounds about right. I did have a couple friends who did a few years but were to short to get the E.

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.

That's incredibly strange. They should cut your BSN years in half and apply that to your rank. ADN experience shouldn't apply to your rank since it isn't qualifying in the military (as you know all RNs are BSN+). So you got a total of 6 years of credit? 2 years BSN experience should given you1 year credit and then no idea what they did with the 8 years ADN. Back to the original poster: I would 99% bet that your time as a RN does NOT apply towards credit. You are commissioning as a FNP, not a RN. Your RN experience is now irrelevant because it is an entirely different AFSC. You could be a full fledged cardiothoracic surgeon but if you are commissioning as a RN that experience is irrelevant. I would assume your full prior enlisted experience should count towards your OE pay. Seems like with your 2 years FNP experience and a MSN you should come in as an O2E with 1 year credit towards rank, and 9 years prior enlisted credit for your pay. You would hit O3E after being in for only a year.

Definitely recommend talking to a health professions recruiter for all AIR FORCE questions and anyone in the AF for NURSING questions. 1. They are indeed phasing out AD OB nurses (kind of) however I don't think you would have a problem commissioning as one. It is a path that new air force nurses can take however so it may be SLIGHTLY more competitive, but with that experience... I think it would be pretty easy. 2. OB nurses do deploy but you might not be in a OB setting. I could be wrong but I do think they can stick you in a clinic. Maybe an AD OB nurse can chime in here. 3. Deployments vary depending on your job but typically nurses deploy for 6mos at a time. It would change if you were on a team such as GST, CCATT, or some other special task team. 4. Vacation is as above 2.5 days a month. It depends on your unit staffing, policy, etc. but sometimes it isn't the easiest to use leave. Everyone's results may vary here. You also can NOT call in, you typically HAVE to go to the ER and get seen and they decide if you can work or not. 5. It should also be noted that it is extremely difficult if not impossible to switch specialities within your first years. If you come in as an OB nurse, be prepared to be an OB nurse for a few years. There's no changing floors, specialities becuase you are burnt out, tired, or want change. If you come in as OB.. it's going to be pretty difficult to switch from OB to something else. Also, if you come in as ED it will be almost impossible to switch to something else also. ICU/ED are critically manned so once you get that identifier it's very difficult to go somewhere else except maybe flight nursing. 6. With all your experience (they cut your years in half) you should come in as a capain (o-3). You can look up pay tables for a captain with <1 year for your pay. It may seem pretty low but it rises drastically when you get your BAH/BAS (housing/food allowance) added on, but that changes with zip code. Not sure of your financial status but there's loan repayment programs you can get when you commission or if you come in as ED with your certification they are offering 6yr contract with 35k a year additional to your pay (210k total). That's a big chunk of money. Med-surg can get 4yr with 20k a year (80k total). I don't think there's any bonus for OB nurses but i'm not 100% sure. Source: Am a Med-Surg (MSU in AF) nurse about to go to the ICU fellowship in January.