FarawaySoClose

Bring nosey cause I'm a psych NP too: did you get your offer back from the board yet?

As much as most nurses will suggest getting a year of med-surg under your belt before specializing you can survive in psych without it as long as you maintain a basic level of medical knowledge and know physiology related to psych meds. And I don't know about the other branches but the Navy will put you in mental health as a new grad if they need mental health nurses. I'm a mental health Navy nurse if you have any ?s

MK, are you pursuing your BSN through NCP?

Probably looking at 7 in a 2 week cycle; 3 one week, 4 the next (including weekend shifts). That's if you're working 12s of course.

I haven't been on my unit yet so I can't answer most questions about what the work is like. I haven't heard anything about working 5-6 shifts per week; I've been told it's 3-4 plus on-call a couple of times a month. On top of that you will have training, any extra duties or responsibilities you decide to take on, events/lectures; you put in what you want to get out essentially. And you are a Navy officer 24/7; it's kind of hard to explain but you'll get it. Nurse:pt ratio varies based on the floor your on but for the most part it sounds reasonable compared to the horror stories you hear in the civillian world (I work in mental health so it's a bit different for us). You will almost certainly go to one of the three teaching hospitals starting out; the only nurses who were exceptions to this rule from our ODS class were the prior enlisted. As far as the med-surg thing: out of the group of us who ended up at San Diego only one has been placed in med-surg that I'm aware of. They will take what you want into consideration but truthfully the priority is Navy's needs then your career needs then your wants. It will depend on what the hospital you go to needs when you arrive after ODS (you probably won't find out what area you'll be in until you've been at your hospital a week or two) and, if you have experience, that will be factored in too. For instance, I'm a mental health nurse, I have mental health experience, the hospital I'm at needs experienced mental health nurses therefore I've been placed in mental health; that's where I want to be anyways so it worked out for me. They will ask you what your preferences are and they will try to fit you in if they can. If you get placed in a specialty you aren't thrilled about it's not the end of the world, try to stay open minded and you may find that you like it, or you can work really hard and impress your dept head/div-o and get sent to an area you do like I think everyone is eligible for loan repayment, you apply once your in and if you get it they tack extra time onto your commitment; I'm not applying for it so I don't know the details. You should ask your recruiter about that one.

Perkygyrl, you have to post a certain number of times before you can send private messages. What are your questions? I'll do my best to answer them. Good point, 79tango.

I went to ODS in January, if you have any questions about it let me know. I'm stationed in San Diego, loving it here.

First of all, thank you for making the commitment to serve our country, especially as a "lifer" I went to ODS this January and can give you an idea of what to expect but your experience will vary depending on the time of year you go to ODS and on who your Chief is (our class Chief was awesome and that made it a good experience). You'll want to start getting into shape now, running, sit-ups and push-ups, maybe some other strength training; if you don't pass the PRT at the beginning they will work with you to get you to where you need to be but it's good to be in decent shape before you get there. As far as academic prep you can start memorizing the stuff they have listed on the website now (Sailor's Creed, General Orders of a Sentry, etc) and be a little ahead of the game. Maybe study the Navy's history a little bit. They are going to pump you full of information and knowledge and lots of it in a short amount of time. You're not going to get it all, they don't expect you to, just take in as much as you can and be prepared to keep learning when you leave. In regards to all those sites and blogs and the wikipedia article about the experiences of people who have gone to ODS in the past, forget about it. Think of those experiences as your grandfather's ODS; it's changed, they're constantly tweaking it and your Chief will have his or her own way of doing things. Also I know you're a high-achiever and that you want to do your very best to impress right off the bat and want to be totally prepared, because I've been through nursing school too, lol. Let it go now. Just come in and be prepared to take it all in, or "drink the kool-aid" as they say. The sooner you let go and just go with the flow and their way of doing things the better off and less stressed you will be. Yes, you want to pass inspection and memorize you gouge pack and maintain good military bearing, but you aren't expected to know all this stuff coming in. They will teach you the way they want to you to do things and know things. Just relax, don't let yourself get stressed out. Some advice: -Look to the prior enlisted in your class for advice and guidance but don't abuse them. -Sign up for a leadership position or role (not necessarily Div-O, better to leave that to a prior or someone with really solid leadership experience). -Don't fall asleep in class; you will go without sleep or very little sleep at times and possibly no caffeine. If you start to fall asleep stand up in the back of class or run up and down the stairs during a break. -Keep you water bottle on you at all times. -ALWAYS lock your locker, never leave it unlocked. -Don't call a Chief "Sir" (I had a lot of trouble with this), you call them "Chief", "Senior Chief" or "Master Chief" depending on their rank. No joke. Practice it now, "yes, Chief", "no, Chief", "aye aye, Chief". You do address officers as Sir but you will interact more with Chiefs at ODS. -Have integrity; don't lie, cheat or steal. -Remember that you are an Officer at all times. I tend to ramble, so if any of that was unclear don't hesitate to ask for clarification or to ask about anything regarding ODS. About furthering your education with the Navy: the getting paid to go to school thing is called DUIns (Duty Under Instruction) and once you finish your initial commitment you'll be able to apply for it; they pay for you tuition and you get paid salary (and I think you still get BHA) to go to school and then you pay back the time in a commitment equal to the number of years you spend in school. It can be very competitive depending on what you want to study (not sure what it's like for medical school. There's also TA (tuition assistance) available and you can always study on your own dime and time. at Newport when you go to ODS I highly recommend talking to him about this stuff (I know he was going to be heading to another duty station soon), he can give you some really solid advice on furthering your education on the Navy's dime not to mention what Navy Nursing is like in general. Let me know if you have more questions and have a great Navy day! An ENS

Newly minted Navy Nurse Corps Ensign here :)

The Navy has a program for just that called Medical Enlisted Commissioning Program that allows active duty medical corpsman to pursue their BSN and, upon earning their BSN, become an officer. You get full pay and benefits while you go to school plus you can use your G.I. Bill to help pay for your education. I'm an Ensign and direct commission so I don't know what it's like in this program or how competitive it is; this is pretty much the extent of my knowledge of the program but you may want to speak with a recruiter about it. Good luck :)

Backflipx2, How long ago did you start applying? Did you send a packet to last year's selection board? I've been applying for a year and a half and was professionally recommended last year by the board but had to wait for a slot to open up which didn't happen until slots for FY2011 opened up. So if this is your first time applying to the nurse corps and there are still a lot of applicants then you may have to wait until next year if you are selected. If you do have to wait it may be a good idea to try to find a job in the mean time to get some experience even if it's per diem work or in a less desirable facility. My recruiter didn't mention how many slots were open or how many applicants there were. If I were you, I'd email or call your recruiter and ask him or her to check on the status of your application; I emailed my recruiter every once and a while to ask him to check and see what was going on with the selection process.

Hello Backflipx2, I just heard back a couple of weeks ago that my commission into the NNC was approved and found out my duty station and ODS date last week: San Diego and Jan 2nd. It was a long wait but things seem to be moving pretty fast now and I'm very excited to start my career with the Navy. I'm not completely comfortable with sharing my email on a public forum, nothing personal, I just don't like :spam: , but we can certainly private message on here if you want to chat about Navy application experiences. Let me know if you hear anything back and good luck.

Not sure if I can post links but this page has lots of tips for ODS: http://navyhpsp.net/wiki/ODS_Tips I haven't been there yet myself but I'm hoping to go soon :)

Congrats on being nearly finished with earning you BSN, Oldlove, that's a tough journey. With that much experience in emergency nursing they should be eager to have you in the nurse corps :) Where are you hoping to get stationed? I can tell you after the long wait I would be disappointed if I heard that I wasn't accepted but relieved to just move on with my life with as many things as I've had to put on hold over the last year. However I'd be infinitely more excited to be accepted and get started with a Navy career Thanks for the reassurances, Aktexas and Oldlove, it really does help.

Hi Oldlove, I knew they were reviewing packets soon but had no idea that it would be tomorrow. I started my packet in April 2009 (egads! has it really been nearly a year and a half?) and am in Arizona, no idea how many other packets are being submitted from this region. They've had a lot of critical care nurses apply from what I understand and I'm a psych nurse so I don't think I'll stand much of a chance if there aren't many slots; what background do you come from? Sorry, I'm not much of a source of information, but it is nice to chat with someone else who's waiting :)