lvsmith

Hi, I am a new Navy RN - I went throught the NCP program and I am at Portsmouth Naval in Virginia. I have been working as an RN since last April. Yes, you do get a rotation throughtout the hospital in the major areas - I think most big hospitals have whet is called the nurse intern program - mine was 10 weeks. We went to med/surg, ortho, peds and postpartum - some of my fellow peers went to the surgical, oncology units. We were supposed to have a 12 week orientation - but the units wanted us ASAP. Well, most of my fellow 6 nurses went to ortho, L&D, surgical, PCU, ED and I am in Psych. Most units work 12 hour day/night shifts - my unit works 8's. There is a lot to learn about being a new nurse and a new officer and your time may be spent learing on the ropes (as far as what your role is with the corpsmen). The corpsmen do a lot, but we also do a lot also. Many times the corpsmen are overworked and if you volunteer to do the little things and help them out in anyway you can they will bend over backwards for you. I am spoiled because most of my corps staff are specialized in psych and are mostly career navy. Yes, you will get some who do not pull their weight and it may be difficult to get things solved the "correct" way because even though you may be in charge (I was after 2 weeks on my unit - in charge of 3 units with at least 30 patients and 1 other nurse with 3 corps staff on each unit - on the night shift) there is a "correct" way to go about fixing things - the corps staff are not directly under you and you have to first let them fix the problem then you have to go to the senior of the shift then the senior of the unit and on and on - you get it. I have put in my request to transfer to another unit - I want more. One major problem with the military hospital is the civilian contractors. They think they own the hospital and we work around them. That means if you have civilians on your unit and they call in sick or do not show up - we take their place. No matter if it is your day off - you may get a comp day - IF that is possible. Some civilians never call in sick and are great to work with and some are not. For OR you have to have at least one year on the medical unit - the school is in Pensacola. But all in all I think that this is the best chioce for many new RN's. You have the opportunity to ask for a new unit every year, you have the option to move to a new duty station every couple of years and all of the benefits are great. And you will never reach the pay ceiling - you will get a pay increase if the president allows and cost of living increases. I think it is the best deal. I hope this has helped!