ArmyRNOB

Hospital policy is important but ACOG and AWHONN clearly state the minimum accepted amount of assessments as well. I don't have time to look them up for you but everywhere I've worked has followed ACOG/AWHONN or is even more strict. Good luck researching!

The military is all salary. I think new LTs are starting out around $50K with all the housing allowances, free health care, etc. But you don't get paid overtime!

wow, so proactive! I love it!

Congrats on getting your dream job. In my last facility that had a NICU it was 6 months for new grads. I worked across the hall in L&D which was also 6 months for new grads. Best of luck!

Check out IAFN's website for info on training and certification as well. They have some good stuff on there.

You are right; there are many hoops to jump through in order to be eligible for FNEP. This is very typical of these funded education programs - I am going through something similar myself. Waivers are hard to come by, but not always impossible. I suggest talking to a health care recruiter and/or the branch managers of the nurse corps to see what your next step could be. Have you tried San Diego State? They offer in state tuition for active duty and it's less than $10K a year for the MSN program (which is 24 months long if you already have your BSN). Good luck!

I have been a nurse-manager at an MTF. We were severely restricted at hiring new grads. Our facility required a year of experience prior to hire, and you would be a GS-10. If we decided to hire a new grad, they would start as GS 5, then GS 7, then GS 9. This would go on for two years. After that they would be a GS 10. It made more sense for a new grad to go get a year of experience and then come back to us. Once hired, though, it didn't seem to hard to get transferred as your spouse PCSed from station to station. You generally have priority. I highly, HIGHLY recommend when you do apply for a job to talk to the nurse-manager or whomever is doing the actual hiring. It's great to talk to HR and all but they are busy people and they don't have time to relay all your messages to the nurse-manager. Find the boss of the floor you want to work on and talk to that person about the job. You are much more likely to get it if you make your name known.

I love Tricare. It's so easy and there are hardly any forms. I especially love how I can just go gets meds at the pharmacy and not have to wait for them to call the doc to verify the script and call my insurance company first prior to filling it. It's all in the system. Many people complain about Tricare but almost universally I've noticed that they have never had any other insurance other than Tricare. I don't think they always see how Tricare can be much less of a hassle compared to other insurance companies.

It's true that the Army has been able to met their recruiting goals for new grads, but I can tell you that they are definitely looking for psych NPs. I have no idea how many they need but every year they send a number of officers to fully funded graduate school and this year the Psych NP specialty did not get filled up. They were asking nurses who did not get their first choice of graduate school if they wanted to try out for psych NP instead. Please note that this program is different than HPSP. This program is called LTHET and it is for officers who are already on active duty. But it does demonstrate that they have a need for psych NPs if they are encouraging midwifery candidates and so on to apply for psych NP instead.

I've heard that the Army Nurse Corps actually made their recruiting mission last year. For sure they will only take BSNs on active duty. All the other branches of the Army require their officers to have a bachelor's degree and the nurse corps needs to stay on par with that standard. Anyway, I hope you have smooth sailing as you earn your BSN and then apply for a commission. You may try your hand at ROTC too if you are looking at maybe getting a scholarship.

A friend of mine volunteered for this and was told that she is too old! She's only 36. I think it would be an interesting experience myself but I'm currently on another mission that precludes volunteering for this one. Good luck to those of you who do go; it should be different if nothing else!

Where I work it is bare bones staffing. This is who is present: OB Doc Scrub Tech (who acts as First Assist as well) CRNA Pediatrician OR Nurse Baby Nurse We require the pedi to be there as the staffing is so bare. There is also an L&D nurse on the floor whom we could call if things get hairy, say if we need to resuscitate the baby. There are no anesthesiologists, back up OB docs, extra nurses, or anything like that. It's a very small facility.