Travelcrazy

I feel your frustration. It was 18 months for me from the time I contacted a recruiter to the time I went to cot. Worth the wait, though. I didn't request a clinic. I actually requested large medical centers (either overseas or states), but ended up at a clinic as that was what was needed at the time. The benefit to a clinic is that your choices for bases are immense. I have plenty of free time for family. You're off every weekend, holidays, and down days at most clinics. It's actually allowed me the opportunity to learn more of the military ways as nurses end up in many of the leadership roles. It's good because you'll need to learn all that stuff eventually.

SG... I am a clinical nurse in the AF. I had 7 years of civilian nursing experience prior to joining (med/surg, tele, outpatient surgery). I predominantly worked 3 12's most of my career so the AF was a big adjustment for me. Since I had so many years of experience I got selected to work in a clinic. Monday-Friday usually 9-10 hour days. The job itself is easy-I spend most of the day on the phone placing referrals and triaging patients. It's a very different world from civilian nursing. In addition to that, as an AF officer you are given additional duties....you are responsible for your troops, you write eprs and oprs (performance reports), are expected to educate your enlisted medics/civilians, and are sometimes given additional jobs that make it challenging to get everything done (im also my groups infection control officer) With all that being said, A F life is great. The opportunities as a nurse are endless. I've only been in 2 years this month but I've already done many things that I've never had the opportunity to do in civilian life. If I could change anything it would be that I would have come in sooner.

Congratulations to all of you who got selected! It's a great feeling! I just finished COT April 8 and have been working about a month now. It's exciting, new, and A LOT to learn!!!

If your ultimate goal is to be a RN in the military then I would bypass the ADN and just go ahead and get the BSN. You have to have it to be an officer.

I leave Tuesday for COT and this whole process has taken me 19 months. I would go ahead with your program. You'll get a lot of it done before you would ever even leave!

Carolina-Pooh, Does anything get sewn on the lightweight blues jacket?

My husband is enlisted and I will be leaving for COT in about 23 days (but who's counting?) My husband originally had orders for Hurlbert Field, but those orders were changed to coincide with mine when I received mine. We are now stationed at the same base (Tyndall.) We had no problems whatsoever with the joint spouse program and the people at AFPC were very accomodating to us. From what I understand, there is no "official" problem with being married to an enlisted member as long as you were married before you joined. Now, that's not to say that you won't receive a little flak from others, but, so be it. My husband and I are in opposite career fields, so chances are that we will rarely see each other. I say go for it if it's something you really want.

Thanks Mid. I'm going tomorrow to get all the uniforms.

Thank you!

For those of you who have already gone or are at cot now, should I have my rank sewn on all my abu's or just on one pair?

Who WOULD have thought 14 push ups would be hard??? I started out being able to do 5. Now I can do 9. I have a month to get to that magic number of 14! AHH!

You must have a bachelors of science in nursing.

Ha! I love it!

By the time I started the application process to the time that I actually leave for training it will have taken 18 months. If you are serious about it... Start now. The military gives you half credit for your experience as time served. This goes towards your rank. You must have a bachelors for the air force. If you have a masters degree then they give you an additional years worth of "credit."

Nothing about the whole process is clear cut. There have been many times I've read about people on this web site whose experiences have been way different from mine. I haven't seen one person who has had the same time frame of events as I have had. (most people got through with their acceptance letters, cot dates, and commissionings much faster than me) it's definetly frustrating. If you already have a cot date for january then i would be thankful because many, many folks are going to be waiting a long time to get in. My advice: call your recruiter and tell them you know of some individuals who have already got their commission and don't leave till march and inquire about why you have not! Stay on him. FortunTely I've had a great recruiter through all of this. On another note- thanks mid!!!!