Rose3721

The transition program is between 24 and 26 weeks long. I came in last July for OBLC, got to Hood in September and finished the program in April, so about 6 months long. Holidays it just depends, you work your preceptor's schedule. So if they're working so are you. However, a good Head nurse will give you holiday time so if you work Christmas they'll give you an 8 hr day off the next pay period. They recognize that civilians get paid extra for holidays but we don't so we get comp time, but this is totally up to your command. We got it for every holiday but Easter so far.

Taking leave in the Transition Program is highly discouraged and ultimately up to your command. At Hood we were not allowed to take any leave during the program except for emergency leave. The reasoning is because you ahve to meet a certian number of clinical hours to graduate the program. So I've been at Hood since September and I'm taking leave for the first time this month. I finished the Transition Program last month. :) I would try to talk to your supervisor once you get to your duty station and they will decide if they'll let you or not.

You should get BAH for where your dependents are located, as long as they are under you in DEERS. My husband carries my daughter in DEERS, we're dual military, so I was considered a "single soldier" and didn't get any BAH during BOLC. But if you're not dual military or you are and the dependents are under you, you will get BAH for where your dependents are located. Just be prepared for it to take a while to get your pay right. I know it took a while at my class in July...

It is incredibly hard to get into the ER specialty course because it is only offered at Ft Sam. Usually what happens is that you go to your specialty course enroute PCS to another duty station. So before you go to the school you go ahead and ship your home etc and go straight from school to your new duty station. Sometimes you can work it out to return to where you were but not always, just depends on needs of the Army. Even if you get accepted to go to the ER course be prepared to sit on the wait list for a year before actually getting a date for the course. This is what we were just told by our Chief Nurse last week. And your Chief Nurse has to approve for you to go anyways so they can always delay you if they don't feel you're ready. You can't even apply to go until you've finished the Nurse Transition Program, which lasts 6 months. So plan to be in for at least 2 years before going to the ER course, but you really need that basic nursing practice first anyways, in my opinion. I know that our Chief Nurse here won't send anyone that has been out of the program for less than a year ot the ER course because they don't have enough nursing experience. Hope this helps. :)

Walking during your run is strongly discouraged!!! I woudl not do it. Once your're at your unit if your enlisted soldiers see you walking during a two mile run you will lose a lot of respect in their eyes. PT is an integral part of the Army. Even though on the AMEDD side it is a little more laid back than in a line unit. Do your best to go prepared to pass the APFT on the first time. If you're making a committment to be a commissioned officer being able to pass an APFT at any time is absolutely required. Don't think that they will prepare you to pass at BOLC. You will take your APFT within 7 days of arriving at BOLC and that is not enough time to train to pass if you haven't already been working on your own. A lot of recruiters tell people that they will prepare you at BOLC to pass, this isn't true for the first APFT. If you fail the first one then you will do more PT with cadre in preparation for the re-test. I highly encourage people to begin running, doing situps and pushups for at least 2 months prior to BOLC to be prepared. Hope this helps!! :)

BOLC is 9 weeks. The Nurse in Transition Program is 24-26 weeks. So after BOLC she'll report to her duty station and begin the NIT program. The Program is undergoing some major changes right now. When I came in we rotated throughout the entire hospital for 12 weeks then did a 12 week preceptorship on Med-surg. Now the rotations have been taken out and you just do a 24 week preceptorship. Depending on your hospital you may split the 24 weeks. We do 12 at Med-surg and 12 weeks on mother baby.

We've heard that instead of rotating throughout the hospital first in phase 2 then precept for 12 weeks that you will do your preceptorship on your assigned floor first then rotate around. One of my biggest complaints in this program was that we were rotating everywhere but had no idea where we were going to be assigned. Everyone would ask us "which floor will you be on?" and we could never answer. Coming from my leadership though, you will still do rotations throughout the hospital. Here the Med-Surg floor wasn't big enough to accomodate all the LTs at once so we had half precept on mother baby for 6 weeks with the other half on med-surg for 6 weeks then switched. Some got permanently assigned to Med-surg, some to mother baby, some to L&D, some to PACU, and NICU. Because they brought so many new LT RNs at once they couldn't put us all on Med-surg, so it kind of worked to our benefit. :) For Peds, those of us that have told our leadership that we want to do peds have been told that we will float up to peds for a month at a time. They won't assign us there because our facility doesn't get a lot of inpatient Peds. Big Army is trying to bring back Peds as a specialty for Army nurses so I wouldn't be surprised if some ANs got assigned there.

For the TNCC question from Lunah, you should be able to be excused from TNCC if you already have it. So you'll get a Saturday and Sunday off. It was taught to us by civilians with no military specific traning so I don't think it will be any different for you than if you did it on the outside.

Just curious, where did you see the information showing a link between shortages in the Army nurse corps and the suicide rate of the Army? I've never seen that material and I would be interested in reading it. I've never heard anyone address the shortage of the ANC and reference the reason to be the suicide rate currently seen in the Army. Thanks!

I bought my ASU at the clothing and sales on post in Hawaii, not at Ft Sam. It is much cheaper than Marlow White, think it was $400 for everyhing including all the brass etc. And when you purchase from clothing and sales they do the alterations for free. I asked several friends who have been in the Army for 20 years if it was worth it to buy from Marlow White since the fabric is a little higher quality. I was told not really, that you really won't wear it often enough to justify the extra expense. I highly recommend going to Ft Sam with as much of your uniforms as possible. The clothing and sales will sell out of certain items. Make sure that you have your beret already shaved and shaped so you don't look silly. Have your rank already sewn on your soft cap as well. I was lucky that we were right by a post so I went with everything and it really made my life easier. So if possible I highly recommend you doing the same. Let me know if you have any other questions. Also, Ft Hood is only 2 hours from Ft Sam and we have a well stocked clothing and sales. If you are driving down to OBC you might detour here and grab whatever uniform items you need. I have no problem meeting up with you here and helping.

I am also a new grad going into the NICU. I graduated in May and have been rotating around my hospital at Ft Hood completing the Army Nurse Transition Program, the Army's new grad program basically. I just found out yesterday that I am being assigned to NICU after my Med/Surg and Mother Baby preceptorship in April. So excited!!!! I actually am going to be cross trained in Mother baby and Peds in addition to NICU so I can work all 3, thought NICU will be my home. :) I can't wait to start in May!!! I've been looking for good textbooks too so I go ready. Any suggestions?

The leave policy is different for each program, just up to your supervisor. I know here at Hood the only leave you can take while in the NTP is emergency leave and you have to make the time up after you get back. We had 2 weeks after OBC before we had to report to Hood. I reported the day of graduation because I didn't want to be charged any leave. :) Plus while I was at Ft Sam I drove up to Hood and found a house already so I was ready to get settled. :)

Tattoos are very common, even in the ANC. No worries there. :)

Originally Posted by armyfnp72 At this time the army nurse corps is what they call 'fat and happy'. They don't need anymore RNs. So not only are they not recruiting new RNs, but they treat their current ones like crap. It is very unprofessional to bad mouth your professional organization. Just because you are having a bad experience does not mean that the Nurse Corps as a whole treats its nurses badly. I have heard no complaints from the army nurses at Ft Hood other than the usual scheduling complaints, which is inevitable. Please remember that you are a commissioned officer and conduct yourself accordingly. Your behavior reflects on all of us.

Yeah the 6 months of free temporary housing is definitely too good to be true. As previously stated 10 days is allowed. As far as our leadership here you don't have to stay under the radar to survive. They want to know what you want to do with your career and how they can help you get there. We have monthly counselings with the director of the NTP and she always asks our short and long term goals and then we address the feasibility of those goals. So please don't think that you can't say anything to leadership, it's not like that at all. We are a team at CRDAMC and leadership wants to develop and grow us so we can take care of them one day. :)

If I remember correctly, you are allotted $100 per day of travel and this is supposed to cover your meals and hotel, which can be quite a stretch, You will file a travel voucher once you get to Ft Hood and get that money back then along with gas money. As far as it goes with males and the Mother Baby floor, gender is not looked at when making floor assignments. I'm a girl but I absolutely HATE mother baby, I personally feel like it's a waste of my degree. Healthy moms, healthy babies= no skills for me besides assessments. Whether you get assigned there or not you will do a 6 week rotation on that floor so prepare yourself. I'm right there with ya. I'd rather work in a clinic than MBU. The director of the NTP here is a CNS in child maternal health so be careful what you say about MBU to her, that's her love. :) I think that the NTP is a good idea but it wasn't executed very well for my group. We are basically working out the kinks for you guys. :) We did too much time in outpatient clinics where all we did all day was take vitals, for 5 weeks. I enjoyed rotating through the hospital, ICU, NICU, OR, Med/surg, L&D, MBU, ED. You make a lot of contacts within the hospital that can come in handy later. We're all just frustrated because we've been here since September and they still haven't told us where we're going to be assigned. That's probably my main complaint because that's all I cared about finding out. :) You will have to work some nights. It sucks. My husband is deployed and I have a 5 year old so I hate nights. But you make it work. Why are you concerned about nights? Normal schedule is that in a 2 week period you work 6 12s and 1 8. Every other weekend. You should get major holidays off while you're in the program as well, which was nice. While we rotated around the hospital we worked 8 hr shifts, 0700-1500, except for the last few weeks when we started doing some 12s. You will not be allowed to take leave while in the program so be prepared for that. We weren't told that prior to arriving and it was a nasty suprise. As far as "add on" duties go, we've been tasked to run like 3 different committees for different events. We had to plan and execute the Army Nurse Corps Birthday celebration dinner, stuff like that. For CRNA, they'll talk more about that at OBLC. You can start the paperwork for that soon after geting here with the expectation that you'll go in a couple of years. But you need to have taken your GREs before you apply. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Your orders will state what day you begin active duty service. New grad RNs are treated well but there are always those nurses who are rude, which is unavoidable and can be seen at every hospital in the world. :) You can plan on staying at your first duty station at least 1 year. They asked us here who wanted to stay and who wanted to leave after a year. If you leave after a year you will most likely go to a small MEDCEN, which could be good or bad. I'd rather stay at the larger hospitals for the first 5 years for the experience.

Stonecreek and Brookside are the only gated apartment communities in Killeen. I have several friends, also nurses at Darnall, that live there and like it. I live in Harker Heights and absloutely love it. It adds about 5-10 minutes onto my commute but I don't really have to deal with any traffic. Most soldiers will live in Copperas Cove which is West of Hood, Killeen, which is wrapped around Hood, or Harker Heights which is East of Hood. They're all within 15 minutes of each other. Just depends on if you have kids and if you want a house or apartment.

Germany and Hawaii are 2 possible OCONUS assignments. You will probably still come in as a 2nd LT because the Army only gives you time and a half for rank credit so to them you only have 6 months experience. You may be able to get the ICU identifier, I think you would need a leter of competency from your current supervisor among other things. The AMEDD recruiter should be able to help more. I came in as a new grad so I didn't have to worry about any of that. :)

I'm actually at Ft Hood in the Nurse in Transition program, formerly known as the Army Nurse Residency program. It's been renamed. :) Your info about switching assignments is correct, you can switch with someone that is also a new nurse but only if you and the other nurse have not shipped any household goods yet. If you have already shipped household goods to your assignment you can no longer swap. Where were you hoping on swapping to? I wouldn't show up to OBLC early, really no reason to and you'll have to pay out of pocket for the extra hotel stay. I showed up a day early and was told that I had to pay for my own room until the next day. The first day of OBLC consists of signing in (you just wear your normal clothes) and getting your lodging assignment and that's it. So I signed in at 0700 and had the rest of the day to watch TV. :) For the course guarantee question- You should pick your specialty course your first year here at Hood. You will not be sent to the course until you have been at Ft Hood for a full year. You incur a year ADSO for the specialty course but it is served concurrently with your original commitment. So if you owe 3 years, you serve 1 then go to your course, you serve that extra year at the same time that you're serving the 2 years you have left on your original contract. So the extra year really doesn't matter or affect you in any way. But I can tell you 100% that you will not be sent to your course until after your first year. I've been here since September and we were just told this by our Senior Rater last month. You should also know that there are 30 of us here now in the Nurse Transition program, all wishing to attend a specialty course. We should probably exchange emails. :) The NTP does not vary based on prior service. We are all new nurses and attend the same training and have the same requirements. We rotated throught all the outlying clinics on post, the clinics within the hospital and pretty much every floor of the hospital for 10 weeks. I start my 6 week preceptorship on the med/surg floor next week. After that I will do a 6 week preceptorship on the Mother Baby floor. We were told that we will all be placed on either the mother baby or the med/surg floor for the first year. Hope this helped!!

How long have you worked in the ICU and as an RN in general? This will also play a factor. The Army may assign you constructive credit for your ICU nursing experience. Just keep in mind that the Army will palce you where you're needed. If they have enough ICU nurses at the hospital you get assigned to you may be placed somewhere else. You can volunteer for deployments and from what I've been told the ICU/ER nurses with the skill identifiers are deployed often. Your best bet is to talk with an AMEDD recruiter.

We got paid 2 weeks after arriving for OBLC. However, it could take up to a month so be prepared financially. Unless you have dependents you will not receive BAH while at OBLC because they will put you in lodging and pay for it. I am married and have a child but since my husband is also a soldier and our daughter is listed under him the Army considers me a single soldier. So I didn't get BAH for the 9 weeks of OBLC, which I didn't know about prior and was an unpleasant suprise.

I just spent 6 years in Hawaii and it was great. There are lots of outdoor activities, the weather is great, and the culture is fabulous. It did get a little old after a while though. The cost of living is pretty high so we lived in a smaller house than we were used to. The traffic can be bad so you learn to plan your time wisely. I loved Tripler though, actually had my daughter there. I have several friends in Germany and they are absolutely loving it! I hope to go there one day myself. It is so easy to travel and see the rest of Europe while there. Hope this helps. :)

I have to agree with ceg. I was obly at Gordon for 3 weeks last summer for a nurse internship through ROTC and I hated it. I was at Eisenhower on their MEDSURG floor and I was not impressed at all. I would never volunteer to go to Gordon, ever! I am at FT Hood, another place many people dislike but it's really what you make of it. Most of the patient population that I saw at Gordon on the Medsurg floor were retirees, which is fine but you end up seeing the same thing over and over. I would consider a larger post if I were you. But honestly, no matter where you're stationed you either love it or hate it based on if you're finding fun things to do.

Just posting what I was told by our Branch Manager at Ft Sam a couple of months ago. Maybe she was overexaggerating on the grades needed to get into the program. Good luck whatever you decide! :)