aura_of_laura

Greetings, all! Haven't been on here in ages, but I thought I'd offer the advice and experience I wish I had before I commissioned into the USAF last year. I'm a mental health nurse with almost five years of experience, commissioned Dec 2011, statio...

How had you been handling your guard PT tests? Can't speak for the Army, but I can't see the AF commissioning you on a permanent profile. Long-term inability to run is enough to get you med-boarded out, even once you've already got your commission...

I'd recommend checking with your local reserve or ANG unit - that's something that varies by location, can't say I've ever seen it done by active duty units.

I think you're jumping the gun a bit - you will get to experience a wide variety of nursing roles when in school, which will help you find where your interests really are. And the great thing about nursing is that you aren't typecast - you can work i...

In response to RayRN87: Four years of civilian RN (not BSN) experience are needed to come in as an O-2. You get 50% credit for any civilian nursing experience. Re: aei09a: You don't need to work med-surg first. L & D is one of the specialties th...

Really? That seems a little odd to me.For active duty, you can't even work as a psych RN without a few yearsof experience under your belt, and then you have to wait a year toapply (and another year before you can attend if accepted) for AFITfunding t...

Hmm. I personally know at least one new AF nurse who went to school overseas (Russia), not sure if it was accredited by those agencies... A second opinion never hurts.

I concur with wbtcrna. If you go of your own free will, your command will never even know unless something comes out that could be risky - like hallucinations, or homicidal thoughts. It actually shows good judgment to meet those problems head-on. Ano...

Feel free to PM me, I'd be glad to answer your questions :-) As for Keesler and Elgin, no, there are no MH nursing jobs. A lot of recruiters seem to confuse MH RNs with MH NPs or techs, who go pretty much anywhere.

There should be slots at Travis coming open, I know we have a few people PCSing in the next month or two. I'll PM you if I find out more. Best of luck in the boards!

A few questions I forgot to respond to: Night shift - We all have to do a rotation on nights. On my unit, we usually work two months of night shift, and then 4-6 months of days. It does vary, though - I haven't been on nights since last June. Chart...

They are opening an inpatient mental health unit at Elmendorf late next year, to serve PACAF (this will allow PACAF - Japan, Korea, Alaska) to keep their people in majcom for med-boards, instead of sending them to Travis patient squadron. Unfortunat...

I didn't go through NTP because I already had several years of nursing experience - I think anyone who has less than one year of RN practice goes through NTP. There are only a few locations to do NTP, Scottsdale, AZ, Wright-Patt, OH, and I think in F...

I had a Sq CC pull someone back from AFIT the week before they were supposed to start (after the almost two year application and waiting process). There were people that outranked the Sq CC advocating for that person, but the Sq CC had the final deci...

They told me the same thing about going overseas, that I'd almost certainly get to because of my experience (my whole dream sheet was in Europe) - not until I got out of COT did I find out that mental health TECHs can go overseas, but mental health n...

Hi, ATLRN! I went to COT last January, so I've been working at my base since last February. Travis AFB is great! It's close to San Francisco, the beach, Napa, the redwoods, the mountains - really, everything. And the weather is ALWAYS beautiful. My b...

To commission as an AF psych nurse, you typically have to have psych nursing experience (I say "typically" because there are very few of us, One of the big things to consider is as a psych nurse you can only go to two bases (we only work inpatient),...

Congratulations on getting your BSN! I think that your strongest recommendation is your military service - that counts for a lot! That switch from enlisted to officer can be tough, it's a very different culture. I'm a 46P3 (psych nurse), not a 46N ...

One of the things that they won't tell you, too, is that your ability to go to school is entirely dependent on your Squadron Commander's policy. My current hospital isn't allowing anyone to PCS (move), including for school, until they have four years...

So I just got my COT date - January 10! This is a little sooner than expected, but I'm glad to be getting on the ball with things. Any other nurses heading to Maxwell in January? In other news, my first assignment is to Travis AFB as a mental health ...

I wish I could tell you! I'm commissioning as a Mental Health Nurse in the next week, and I have NO job specifics. I imagine it's very similar to MH nursing in the civilian sector when not deployed. I do know that the options for permanent duty stat...

Keesler's not too bad, or at least it wasn't 19 years ago (my dad was stationed there when I was a kid) - you're right next to the beach! I wonder how much it's been affected by all of the goings-on in the Gulf the last few years...

Specializing was my golden ticket. At the last minute (while my packet was being reviewed), it was *suggested* that I apply as a Mental Health Nurse, which is where most of my experience is. While I strongly believe my packet was fabulous, I know tha...

I love book recommendations! Sounds like some good, creepy, poolside reading - I'll check it out!

While I sort of agree with the OP's sentiments, the military isn't really the refuse bin for nurses who can't make it anywhere else. They have a very competitive application process, as well as strict physical and mental health requirements (kidney s...