larry v

Active duty, pretty sure you have to have 2 years in before applying, then it's special duty for 2 years. I've been told you can go between the different areas within (Aircrew Training, Clinical Management and Stan/Eval) and drag it out longer on the active duty side. Eventually you end up back doing some other nursing job, but I hear you can go back to AES after another 2 years. You can be a reserve flight nurse as long as you remain qualified. But...I am not active duty, I am a reservist so I cannot 100% accurately answer that question regarding active duty. The best answer for you is to figure out what you want to do, what are your goals? Do you want to be active duty Air Force? Would you rather do civilian nursing full time? Personally I went with the reserves because I have a family and a nice support network so we decided to stay near them. I already had enough experience, and the USAF reserve was a great way for me to finally serve.

I failed the one at MEPS too, because it was from the 70's. Went to the optometrist and found out I was fine, the MEPS test sucked. Passed the flight physical one with no problem. You will be fine.

If you want to be a USAFR Flight Nurse, you should just knock out the BSN then apply. In the interim, research the list of squadrons you were sent and get familiar with the commanders, chief nurses and recruiters that are working with them. Try to get some direct contact information and that may help with the recruiting process (depending on the caliber of the recruiter). Good luck!

I am a new reserve Flight Nurse (new as in inprocessed to the unit, still waiting to go to RCOT/SERE/FN school/FTU). My impression is that going active duty is you would have to work as a nurse for two years before applying for Active Duty AES anyway (If AES is what you want to do as Active Duty) Also, there is a force reshaping going on the active duty side. I am not sure how many folks on the nurse side will be affected. I would find a recruiter who deals with reserves going to to active duty and see what the process is. It may be easier to wait until the June Board before making any reserve commitments. Good luck!

J-Star. 4 posts. Join date 2010 Dec 18. I think you all just got trolled.

Nights in my experience, tended to run one of two ways: 1) Things were routine and chill, and there was some serious downtime. 2) Things were off the hook and crazy, and you are chasing your tail all night because of the lack of resources that days had (supervisors who helped out, extra ancillary staff, your RT only having a unit or 2 and not be spread out too thin) It's hard to judge the culture of a shift from someone who doesn't work the shift. OTOH, after 3 years nights made me a raving lunatic. But that may have had something to do with a small child as well.

I did Tele at first, rotating days/evenings. Hated it, total reality shock. 12's made it a bit more tolerable, but I hate floor nursing so much I started working on a computer science degree...didn't work out as the tech industry went kaput at the time. Anyway, ended up in Critical Care and for a while it was pretty good. I say suck it up for a year then make the decision. There are many lateral moves that could be made at that time (procedure stuff, critical care, case management, etc) Also consider a return to school for something at the advanced practice level (aka my eventual long term plan) A little burned out myself, but I have plans. Hope things work out for you!

$572/month for family. Pretty good coverage though, $10 generic meds, $20 primary care copay, $30 Specialist. Going to switch over to Tricare Reserve Select as soon as I can.

A question for you reservists who have left for training/deployments and returned to your job: Did you return to the exact same position you left? Or say if you work for a hospital, can they just decide they want to put you in a similar but different department with different hours? For example, a reservist who works in a SICU, day shift leaves for training/deployment. This reservist followed the proper procedure for leaving and returning. Can the hospital take this reservist and decide to employ them in a different area/different shift (say still in critical care, but ends up in CCU working night shift)? I'm still in the process of applying (Flight physical coming up soon), but this crossed my mind the other day.

I have astigmatism. 1.25 diopters in the left, 1.25 in the right. Passed MEPS. Still waiting to get my flying Class III physical. Oh yeah, I am nearsighted too! I wear glasses, but it's not that bad. Went through MEPS with a dude who had the Coke bottle glasses on, needless to say he was going to need a waiver. Here are some vision and refractive error standards for different flying classes. http://usmilitary.about.com/od/airforce/l/blflyeye.htm Thought the age cutoff was 42 minus any prior service? You could probably join as enlisted (a RN I work with was prior service and entertained the idea of joining as an Aeromedical Evacuation Technician but chose not to) but I don't know how things work once you get your BSN. You'd probably have to wait until your contract out to come back in as a Flight Nurse. And all the initial training would delay your BSN to some degree. Personally, I'd just bust tail and get the BSN out of the way first. During my interview I was told 1st weekend, 3rd weekend, 2 weeks AT and some other time here and there. Not counting the initial training of COT or RCOT (13-23 training days), SERE school (19 training days), Water Survival (2 training days), Flight Nurse School (21 training days) and Aircrew Initial Qualification (19 training days). I was offered the opportunity to go active duty for 6 months to get all the training in once I am official(which I would jump on in a heartbeat, but that's just me dying to get up and going). I've read through threads here and remember seeing statements of 90-120 days a year. I also remember in the interview talks of going active duty for short stints for missions (which would be so freaking awesome). My full time job is 3 days a week. I imagine I am just going to be as busy as hell when this all is up and going. Waiting for MEPS to release my physical to my recruiter, then I need my Class III physical, then maybe after that it's just paperwork to the board? I am dying to get going, but I am using the time to become a runner. Pushups, situps no problem. But the running is 50% of the PT test and I have never been a runner. I can pass, but I want to excel. Unfortunately, I am finding that running adaptations are a lot slower than weights! Hope that helps, maybe sometime this year I'll have some inside knowledge!

Here's my timeline thus far (USAFR Flight Nurse applicant) Touched base with recruiter end of November. Got all the paperwork filled out and turned in early January. Interviewed mid January. MEPS 3/22. Recruiter still waiting for official MEPS paperwork. Still have a Class III Flight Physical to do (waiting to be scheduled) and paperwork to go to the board. But from what I told this is a heckuva lot faster than previous applicants (I'm told this is their first attempt at streamlining the Reserve Flight Nurse process). I can't wait to get started!

33 here applying for reserve Flight Nurse spot, hope to join rghbsn in the next few years. So you are soooo not old!

Thank you for the info. And speaking of recruiters, I got a phone call and a boat load of info via email tonight, so looks like I will start this process, so hopefully see you in 22 months or so!

Congrats! Hope to do a similar process, 22 months, wow. Are there still positions at Pope? I am still waiting for a reserve recruiter to talk with, I was hooked up with a recruiter out of Marietta, Ga but at this point have only made one email contact with a phone number. I hear it's more than the standard commitment of one weekend a month/2 weeks a year. How much will you be flying? How much training is involved? Congrats again, sounds like an awesome opportunity!

Spoke with an Army Healthcare Recruiter the other day, she was telling me the Reserves have all they need and wasn't very helpful at all. Wonder if I should find a different recruiter?