smattles1of2

Thank you! I appreciate it!

I am trying to pre-plan for clinical tomorrow and in the history of present illness it says: "57 year old male S/P distal pancreatectomy." What does the "S/P" stand for? I should have asked the nurses in the hospital but I didn't. Next time I wi...

Blast. My recruiter just called me this morning and said MEPS emailed him and said I was medically disqualified for having 2 kidney stones 3 years ago. I am so mad. He said he's going to send my records to the board for a waiver, but that the person ...

Kidney stones are waiverable. I am living proof. I got a waiver. You just have to fight it. My first recruiter said I was dq'd but I got a new recruiter and they submitted the request for a waiver and I got it. Tell your recruiter to look at COM...

Just make sure you talk to a Medical Officer Recruiter. You can talk to a recruiter now, even when you are in nursing school. While you are in school you can do the Nurse Candidate Program and get money each month or wait until you graduate and get...

I just graduated from ODS! Yay! If anyone has any questions I'll try and answer. I'm stationed at Portsmouth Naval Hospital and going through the check-in process right now. Whew. Paperwork-city!

Navy nurses go to ODS, not OCS. And once you are at ODS you'll be glad you didn't go to OCS...holy cow, that looked scary! haha You pretty much have to be in standards which you can find by googling "navy PRT standards." At ODS my class didn't real...

Commissioning for me took like 30 minutes! My processor faxed me some forms, I signed them and faxed them back. Good luck!! I hope you get all this done soon.

There are many captains at my hospital!

It was way too crowded, so I had to pass it up. I'm all for free food, but my kids aren't one to wait! ha

I got a sponsor a few weeks before I left. Some people didn't get one at all. When you are at ODS you'll have a day where you meet with some other navy nurses and chat about the profession and they'll ask if you got a sponsor and will try and help ...

I don't think I would call it easy, just that we were a good group and "earned" to have PT on our own. We were still pretty busy. Just had to work in PT at night. Midwesternboy, make sure when they are packing up your stuff they label the box an...

If you wait until you graduate, you can commission as a Direct Accession and get a $20 or $30k bonus depending on how many years you commit too. You can also get your student loans paid off (if there is money available) causing your agreement to ext...

Sassysailor, 1. I am hoping to go to ODS in January and I'm a straight southern gurl! Was the dorms really cold? What about the Pt gear was it thick. I am trying to start running in the mornings when its cold because I am stiff as a brick when its ...

Cool! Good luck! Oh, by the way, when you get to ODS and have your PSD brief, they'll give you a form to fill out so you can get an allowance for food, etc. while you are at ODS. You get about $430 which shows up during week 2. The big thing to r...

Oops, I skipped your question 3. 3. How much did you bring to cover costs until you got paid? How much were the uniforms? I initially had $300 in cash. Someone was assigned to handle money, so you give $20 or $40 or whatever to him/her and then ever...

Congrats! 1. Any helpful hints, things to bring/not to bring, any advice on ODS? -lets see, have you checked out the website (OTCN or something)? it has a list of useful things to bring. I would bring some civilian clothes since you get to wear the...

For me, going to ODS depended on timing and what was available. I commissioned on May 9th and was told the earliest I could go was in July, but I chose to put it off until Sept. So I've just been sitting around getting things together for my move (...

No problem. Good luck in school! I did an accelerated 16 month program as well and it went sooo fast! After all that work the NCLEX was a piece of cake. You'll do great! :)

I didn't receive a stipend while in school. I leave for ODS in 2 weeks, so I haven't received my bonus yet, so I do not know how long it takes to get it! Mine is $30,000. I think it is all at once, but not sure. I believe with the NCP your $10,0...

I'm not sure how the NCP works since I went direct accession, but when I was professionally recommended, that basically meant I was good to go. I just had to finish nursing school and pass the NCLEX and then I was "final selected" and commissioned. ...

LCDR Dan, thank you for your advice. I found a nanny, but now I'm just worried my schedule will be too much for her since it's just me and the kids. She already gave me a list of dr appts or vacation days she wants...so I guess I better start looki...

Thank you for your help :)

I have a quick question. If you work 3 days one week and 4 days the next, are you really off on your off days? I'm just getting nervous because it'll just be me and the kids for a year until my husband can transfer to Virginia, so i'm worried about...

It can happen! Good luck!