Cursed Irishman

After a few years as an ICU nurse, I had to google what "memory care" is. Yes, you are a second class nurse. What is it you are trying to do? Are you trying to be a bedside nurse in a hospital? If so, then your skills as described will not be advantageous. If you are looking for case management jobs: those seem more in-line with your description; however, you are held back greatly by lack of a BSN. As previously noted: Your years of experience do not jive: you say you've been a nurse for three years, but list four years worth of experience. You've had four jobs in three years? Not appealing. "My colleagues tell me I am strict when following policies and procedures and seek my advice" - This statement seems to counter itself. Your descriptions seem to focus on the superfluous: Its great you're bilingual and want to help, but I can use a phone and get the same results. Get or at least start on your BSN. Maintain your BLS, get ACLS & PALS. Try to get a certification. Set yourself apart by investing in your professional development. And take your name off of your postings.

RN's can work as LPN's, but do not give up the liability of having "higher" education (http://www.azbn.gov/documents/advisory_opinion/AO Dual Profession & Dual Health Care Licensure_Certification.pdf) I had good experiences with Integrated. While I never worked for them, Health Temp nurses always seemed on par and to be everywhere.

Fun things at BOLC? Drinking and fraternizing. Its more camp webelos than benning. Bring a car.

Lincoln & Scottsdale merged this month.

What were the perks for joining? You may have to repay them. If you ran into issues repaying, I'd go IMA.

The advent of the tri-service medical corps can't come quick enough; if only to eliminate the "which branch is better" questions.

Its always good to hear about servicemembers who are proud of their units. I'll be the first to admit that units vascilate in performance based on a lot of issues. Hind sight being 20/20: I never appreciated how much the guard's dual mission/funding affected soldiers until I came to the reserves.

Read it how you want, you clearly missed the very last line on that page. Ask your recruiter why the Arizona & North Carolina National Guards will direct commission nurses, while your state won't. What state is this by the way? If you're uncomfortable answering publicly, pm me. As for my personal experiences with the guard: The guard is very incestual and self-serving. I had soldiers in every guard unit I was in, whose civilian, guard-oriented jobs involved supervising their weekend squad leaders. This tends to muddle the work dynamic. Soldiers, officer & enlisted, who could not find jobs on the civilian side would milk mobilizations/AGR/ADSW/etc, leaving the readiness of a unit pretty much up to people who couldn't find jobs elsewhere. Add to this a tendency to learn leadership skills from movies and things just snowball from there. Handling work/drill is the same in the guard as it is in the reserves; although the guard did tend to change drill dates more readily than the reserves. The difference lies mostly in funding: the reserves are much better funded and have more of a real world mission, with more variety in training/mobilization. Meanwhile, the guard is poorly funded, with numerous hands reaching in the collective pot; that is unless the unit is or going on title 10, but if you're relying on that, be a reservist. After eight years in the army, four active, two guard, two as a mobilized guardsman (serving in guard engineer, artillery, and mp units): I chose to commission reserves ultimately because the guard recruiter told me all 66 seriers in the state were TRIPLE slotted. You should inquire about that. Since most combat service support (sustainment) are in the reserves, your promotion potential as a nurse in the guard is limited at best Just so you can't say you were never told: you are being lied to.

Someone's lying to you.... Healthcare Officers | Medical Professional | NATIONAL GUARD

That's a very long road your wishing to take part in. Are you refering to acute care or rehabilitiation nursing in a hospital/ecf or as a nurse case manager assigned to a wounded warrior transition unit?

I graduated with a BS in criminal justice and discovered that guys with my qualifications are a dime a dozen. I then saw my sister's paycheck as a nurse and recognized that I could make a decent living and have an exceptional quality of life by entering healthcare.

Having been an infantryman, forward observer, and military policeman prior to being a nurse, I've come to the conclusion that the quality of "hard working" cannot be limited based on sex. I've seen two hundred pound men, made of pure muscle, who lacked the mental toughness of sub-hundred pound women. If the military is a meritocracy, then everyone should be given the chance. In all reality, the number of women who will seek out combat arms will be very small. I foresee, just like the lifting of segregation and DADT, that the overall impact will be neglible.

Its been quite some time and many varied units since I was stationed there; guess that lingo has faded.

Division, eh? 3/05 myself.

Don't change your major. By just saying you're a nursing major, you get swacked with the "nursing tuition surcharge", without even taking nursing classes.

The one thing that really will affect your security clearance is not telling them.

Oz....this isnt a choice.

I went as a reservist; which makes it even more of a party....cause they expect you not to know anything; which for prior service, makes it even more of a vacation. Just make height/weight, I wouldnt worry too much about the pt test now.

I went in July, 2011: 1. Drive; if one thing I've learned in over a decade affiliated w/ the army: if you have the opportunity to have your own vehicle, take it. Cabs get expensive and carrying dufflebags from check in to the hotel is tiring. Put a request through for them to pay mileage on your orders. 2. Bring a power strip to Bullis. 3. Make weight, its all you have to do to graduate. 4. Bring something to read .....if you've got a smart phone, bring that. 5. There really isn't an "in-processing"; I never sat down with a finance or PAC guy. Maybe there was an opportunity that I missed, but I discussed it w/ other prior guys and none of us recalled having the opportunity. 6. Don't try to be in charge. Don't get wound up about silly things. There are PLENTY of tool bags, both prior and non-, who will do things the difficult way and try to enforce made up rules on others. I think people who did this either didn't know any better or thought they were in a movie. 7. Hit up "The Cove" .... I thought it was an urban myth; one reason your car will come in handy. 8. The only thing I can compare BOLC to is the first couple weeks of college: pretty much an alcohol infused party under the guises of education .... w/ some camping thrown in. PS: Read up on your travel voucher; people get hosed when they fail to claim things because they didn't know. For instance, your entitled to laundry reimbursement of, I believe, $2.50 a day.

Back in the day there were alot of support personnel at bragg on jump status who had no chance at ever getting a mustard stain. Since the budget cuts, most of those units have been recoded w/o airborne slots. For example: 35th Signal and 44th Med BDE are no longer on status; even 18th ABN Corp slashed their jump slots. That being said: I'm in a reserve unit assigned to Western MARSG and we just sent a CPT to jump school; so it is possible, but difficult.

I'm actually more annoyed by people who thank me for my service.

I'm an RN in the reserves these days. I earned my CAB in '05 as an MP on Route Irish initially; had a couple other experiences along the way. I also have my EIB and jump wings. The unit I went to Iraq with actually kicked alot of CAB awards back. If the CABs were referred for only one instance of combat, HHC would stamp "not enough combat experience" and rescind it. I know CIBs that were awarded just for being in the same grid square as an ambush occurred and purple hearts that were awarded because a soldier continued going to sick call until he got the necessary paperwork; there are instances of all awards being abused. As to your second question: yes. I've never met someone who was touchy about it. The awards are awarded for performing your job successfully while under fire. The 11 series humvee driver may not get to shoot, but he's there doing his job while getting blown up w/ everyone else.

black or acu; no markings....although these are the published requirements, they are hardly enforced.

No, they are not worth the investment at this time.

I learned nothing useful in nursing school, it actually reduced my knowledge base because it focused on trivia instead of major concepts. Nursing school lays the groundwork for the endemic problems of the profession: its more about busy work, snide remarks and inflated egos than learning the fundamentals.