GetnPhD

Thanks Athena, I try to pass on any information that I may have. As you know, there are many different considerations in Army nursing, just as there is in civilian nursing. I thank each and every one of you who has made the decision to become a military nurse and wear my nation's cloth, no matter what branch of service you enter and whether or not it is Active Duty or Reserves.

Hi 2 soliders, When I was at OBLC, we had several who were 45+, one of my friends was 54. She is a midwife so perhaps that is why she got a waiver for her age? I guess it really depends upon their needs, but I am sure you will do fine! Good luck! Keep us posted on your progress.

Oh wow. Are you Active? We were told this around 10 DEC. They told us that those that were previously scheduled for 12 months would continue that and those that are now being scheduled to deploy will start the 6 month cycle. However, it is the Army..so you know how that can be.

Older, They have changed the deployment status for RNs to only 6 months, that allows us to have shorter times and is now focusing on family, we switch on and off. GenX, The whole process took me a year, as I had to wait to finish residencies. It only took me two months to start the process, get boarded, and accepted, but that was because I had everything they needed prior to meeting with them. I am Active Duty, never did the Reserves route, although all RNs enter via USAR. When you start the process you get to list your top three choices, all three of mine were available. I have my PhD so I understand about graduate school and the looks by some of the advisors. Then again others are more supportive, it really depends upon the person. There are so many routes available for nurses, just like the civilian sector. Families are now more important than ever. Recruiters do not have all of the information so it may be better to ask someone who has served. BTW, all of the postings regarding previous OBLCs have all changed. My class was the first one to instill new things and future classes will all be conducted off post. So my advice to you is to caution what you read..may not always be true.

Hi GenX, I can only speak for myself but I have heard nothing but positives as far as AD Army Nursing goes. I just completed OBLC and am headed to my first duty station in the upcoming days. I am married and have four small children, well not so small, ages 5, 6, 10, and 11. Your marriage will only end in divorce if it has problems, the military has nothing to do with that. I have many friends who have survived multiple deployments and their marriage is stronger than ever! Do not listen to everything you hear. If you deploy it will only be for 6 months, never 18 months so whoever told you that is really telling some lies. Let me know if you have any questions as I am here to help.

Hi 66H, I commissioned in January and am still trying to get orders. In fact, I leave here in 10 days and my unit still does not know that I am coming. Good luck! You will enjoy OBLC when you finally get here.

Hi Army, AD is Active Duty, whereas RC is the Reserve Component.

I have not had any success in the rooms so I am using a USB wireless card, but do not use one unless I need to view/access emails.

i just graduated from oblc and am now heading into the last portion of training here at fsh, and there are a few things mentioned above that are different: if you are a maj or above, you will have your own room while at oblc. i have my own room and am a cpt; there are several of us here that are cpts that have our own room. if you are in bldg 592 chances are you will have your own room and the majority of the rcs had their own room. if you are in the nurse track, you will have training/testing on the weekend. we start the nurse track tomorrow and go straight through until 19 dec. we do not have any days off and go back out to camp bullis for a day of training. i also recommend that you break in your shoes prior to arriving. the platoons will break down into groups...the groups will break down and there is no set rule on what you will be doing for the ftx each day. you will all accomplish the same objectives, our first day we did training to help us with the land navigation. i recommend that you pay attention as we have several who did not pass even after the second time. regular school house classes are supposed to be held off post for future courses and from what i have been told you still could train on the weekend at camp bullis if your class size is large. ours was smaller than the class before us who had to go through the weekend. it is up to you if you want to bring the laptop/printer as we have some that have it and some that do not. i am getting another phd so i need to have mine for class work. you can go to the library if you need to have a form filled out or write a letter to your nurse manager (if in rn track) but i have seen student's sharing laptops. i am not sure if there used to be assignments that required you to bring one, but i recommend bringing one. i strongly recommend that you bring a vehicle, life here stinks without one! start doing what it takes so that you pass your afpt the first time. we had 80 students have to retake the exam, 59 of which who passed it the second time, and the remainder did not. there are a few who did not pass that obtained permanent profiles so that they could walk, which i do not recommend. they told us that if we did not pass it the second time, that they would allow you to retake it again at the end of your track. if you did not pass it, you would be detained for 30-days, allowed to retake it and if you still did not pass you would be recycled. if you are going overseas and do not pass it on the second attempt, you will not go overseas. i passed so i did not have to worry. lastly, as was earlier mentioned, they try not to recycle students unless they need to. we lost two students this time, one due to a surgery another due to a family emergency. we have one student who will be leaving on a medical discharge and a few who will be resigning their commission at the end of the training. it does happen, but know that the cadres here really try to get you through without worrying about your recycling unless you are uncooperative. the 24 hour rule is subjective as there have been a few who have been put on quarters; it really is up to the discretion of the cadre. we had students on quarters during the ftxs (not the ones that we had to get a go on) and at the school house. anyway....my experience does not differ too much from the one above...just thought i would share. uniform inspections will vary depending upon the class advisor, come prepared to purchase one though. some of us were unable to purchase them while here and attempted to buy them on three different occasions. if this happens, you must go to the class advisor to let them know about your situation.

jams, the classes will be held off post, the training will be three weeks at camp bullis. there will be more formations, even though there have been a lot of them while i have been here. there will be more drill and ceremony. the confidence course is no longer available, and neither is the grenade course. those are just a few of the changes that are scheduled for courses after this one.

i am currently here at oblc and i have to say that we have a great mix of individuals who are in their lower 20's and a lot of us who are in our 30's, many who are in their 40's, along with several who are in their 50's. it really has not been intimidating to any of us. the oldest person here is 54 years of age. the difference that we see between the younger and older ones are their desires to go out (younger) and have fun until late in the evening/early in the morning. the older ones (30+) like to go out too but we do not do it to the extent that the younger group does. not that it is a bad thing; it really is the only difference that i have seen here. i have to say that as far as physical fitness goes, you would be surprised if you think that there is a difference as far as the age groups goes...there really isn't. i do have to caution to those that are coming to oblc in january, as well as those that are coming to future classes. what you see on here from previous classes regarding oblc will change, they have instituted many changes with my class and a lot of new ones will be on the way. some of them will be beneficial, others will not. i wish each and every one of you a memorable journey as you will enjoy your experience here at fsh, even if you have some bumps in the road. it has been interesting seeing the transformation that many have gone through. i was told by a prior service member that when we go into the field and then are finished, there is a change that comes over many and it is a great sight to behold. for those of you that are from different branches of the military, please keep in mind that it can be frustrating for you (as many in my class are saying) but in the end you will be able to smoothly transition. best of luck! hooah!

No, you will not get recycled if you do not pass the test. You will not graduate, or so I have been told...I really do not know the specifics of passing/failing. I can let you know when I find out in a few weeks. It will hurt you if you are in the nurse track and want to take a leadership role during the trauma course as those go out to the ones who pass the test the first time. However, there are opportunities to pass and if you do not pass the first time, you will be put in remedial PT which will focus on your run time. Do not worry about the run...you can do it! I do not mind answering questions. Yes, bring your laptop, but many have not brought theirs. It is up to you whether you bring a printer or not. I do not have one and have not had to use my laptop except for one time during the past 5 weeks. Some did not bring one and have borrowed others. There is a library that you can use if you choose not to bring one. I did bring uniforms; however, my recruiter had me purchase things that were not correct...so I have wasted around $200-300. I do not have BDUs, but do have ACUs. This is the uniform that you will use. As far as PT uniforms, purchase online as they are not available here, I recommend going to US Patriot for them as they are reasonably priced. I would also recommend getting your dress blues ordered as my size is not available online or at clothing and sales. We have a dress blues inspection but due to a few of us being unable to get our sizes we are allowed to skip the inspection as the cadre understands these issues. I have found that I did not need nearly as many things as I thought that I would. I would recommend coming with one set of everything and then purchasing the rest here as you need them. As far as ordering online here, you can do that as there is a mail room at the school house that allows for you to have items shipped and/or UPS on post if you prefer to have your mail that way. Good luck and do not over worry about the run. You could always go to a track and practice there if you want to. When you see others running...and running fast....you will be motivated to run faster. I took off 3 minutes from my time when I did my run.

[color=olive]hi armybound, [color=olive]i am currently at oblc and hope that i can answer your questions. i am now in week 5 of 10. i know that it states 9 weeks but it really is ten whenever you plot the start and end dates on a calendar. at least that is how it is for the nurse corp, for those that have to attend longer than a two-week track after graduation from amedd, then it could be longer. they have changed everything since the last class and we are the first to go through the new course. [color=olive]as far as recycling, you will be recycled if you injure yourself where you cannot do any of the activities, miss more than the allowed time, and/or have surgery. right now we have two who are being snow birded. we also had one rc who withdrew. we have a total of approximately 270 ad and 100 rc with us right now. [color=olive]you will take your usar oath first as this is how we all enter the army. i guess you could say that you are not official…however all that it means is that you are not official to the ad (active duty) component, and doing it again three days prior to leaving for oblc is normal. that is how i did it and the others before me who entered into ad. the time between my first commission (rc) and second was 10 months. so do not worry. from what i have been told, our time does not start until we reach our post...then your three to six year commitment begins. [color=olive]their goal is to get everyone to pass. there are events where you will qualify but if you do not...then that is ok...they want you to be exposed to it. you need to pass land nav (you will be given 2 opportunities)...both day and night, your afpt (which you will have 2 opportunities, as well as 180 after completing oblc), events where you will have to reassemble/disassemble a radio, 9mm, m16, and 9-line. these events are not so hard. trust me when i say that i came in knowing absolutely nothing and have been able to pass and qualify on each event. there are other direct commissions who have to redo the land nav because they did not find their points and/or came in after the 4-hour time limit. the rc component does not have to qualify or pass anything…i am not sure why as i am ad. [color=olive]anyway, i hope that i have answered your questions. keep in mind that you will spend three weeks out in the field, with the weekends back on post. i start my third and final week on monday. the first couple of days here, back at the school house, were rough but that was due to issues with my room mate and now that the week is over…i feel so much better. many dreaded coming out to the field but overall we are having a great time. i have found myself doing things that i never thought possible. i have found that when you set your mind to something you will do fine. at first i thought that shooting would be intimidating but i did extremely well, better than some of the prior service. clearing a building is also fun. i did not think that i would enjoy it as much as i did. our group really took it seriously and the cadre was impressed by us. [color=olive]one thing that you should not do is bring a cell...we have had issues with this and many were confiscated. they do search the tents for them as they did that with our class...only if they suspect that someone has one. one of the rc had her phone on her and it was ringing while we were on the firing range. needless to say there were many who brought theirs with them that were angry. they are considering it an integrity issue and you will be removed from the course if they instruct you not to bring one and they find it on you. just a warning...keep in mind that there are phones there and you can access one. i have called home.

Scout, We have individuals here now who are in their 50s. I agree that late 30s and 40s is not old. You would be surprised by the things that the "older" individuals are doing. They too thought that they were old until they started week two and are fitting in quite well with the others who are younger.

Hi JC, Sure I do not mind answering questions. The nurse residency program allows new nurses, 2LTs, and those that have not worked as a RN for a long time to work at a hospital for one year. It is at this time that you can choose to either stabilize or more to another post. You will not deploy during this time period. However, if you are a CPT (and above) then you could deploy after OBLC. We were told that some of us might...but many of us are not sure if it applies to us as we do not know where we are going. When you are in the residency, you will spend a week at first on each unit, then you will do two to three. You can pick three units at your facility when you fill out the paperwork that is required at the beginning. They recommend that you let your CO know what your interests are so that you can work on those units. You will stay at your hospital. You can pick the course after 1 year, it is recommended that you look and see when the course you want has an opening and then just add a the following year to it so that it is in your action plan. You can take the course anytime you want after that first year from what we have been told. Please ask if you have any additional questions as I can ask if I do not have the answers.