Chadmasters

My wife and I are considering rejoining the military (prior service Air National Guard enlisted). I was wondering two things: 1. Does the Active Duty side still try to keep spouses together? We're both nurses and will be NPs by then, though I'll do psych and she's going for family. 2nd, any chance of getting stationed at Maxwell AFB? She's from a town less than an hour away and we currently live 1.5 hours away. Part of me thinks there might be a chance because there probably aren't a lot of people wanting to be stationed in Montgomery, AL. I'd rather not uproot the kids for 3 years if I can avoid it but will if the mission necessitates it.

I'm new to the VA system (less than 2 months). I live squarely in between two different VAs. The one I work for is outpatient. I work Monday-Fridays. The other location is inpatient psych. I want to pick up extra shifts on the weekends at the inpatient psych facility. Is that allowed? Has any VA nurse done this? P.S. Please reassigned this post to the government topics section. I have no idea how to do that.

I ended up leaving law enforcement and I just graduated nursing school in May. I also just took the NCLEX today so hopefully I passed. I decided to do psych nurse practitioner instead of CRNA. I hated the time spent away from my daughter in nursing school and that was just 5 semesters. The local CRNA schools are all moving to doctoral programs which require double the time at double the intensity. Leaving law enforcement was the best thing I ever did. There are so many opportunities as a nurse that it's unreal. I highly recommend it!

I am not being negative. I do not want to go back to the Army. I served honorably and I am proud of my time in the Army but I don't want to do it anymore. There is nothing wrong with that. Most people don't retire. The only ones being negative is you and ArmyMedicRN. I want to make sure our troops are getting the care they deserve and I don't need to be in the Army to do so.

Not making that mistake again!

Guys thanks for the responses. Please keep in mind that I want to work overseas as a nurse practitioner that, as of now, is a minimum program. There is no need to tell me the military requires a BSN.

Darn! No wonder some of those jobs where only up for 2 or 3 days. Did the hospital you work at have a psychiatric floor?

Not as a civilian and I'm enrolling in a BSN program that will begin this fall. Thanks.

I'm graduating in May as an ADN. My ultimate goal is to become a Psych nurse practitioner. I've always wanted to live overseas and I want to provide psych services for our troops so I figured the best way to kill to birds with one stone is to become a psych nurse for the troops stationed overseas. I've watched usajobs.gov like a hawk since I began nursing school (August 2016) and I never see any psych jobs on military bases overseas. What does the military do for soldiers who start to have psych problems while stationed overseas? What about their families? Does the military not provide services for troops overseas?

This post is one of the reasons I think twice of joining the PHS. I bet the poster is a civil service employee who advocates for PHS officers constantly being used for holidays and other crappy shifts the civil service employees don't want.

Thanks. My wife is now looking into the Adult-Gerontological Primary Care Nurse Practitioner program at South Alabama. Thanks for the idea!

My wife and I are both LPNs going through a mobility program to RN. I'm scheduled to graduate May 2018 and she is scheduled to graduate in August 2018. We both want to be nurse practitioners (she wants to become a FNP and I want to become a FNP/Psych Nurse Practitioner). I know that I want to go work into a hospital setting, however, my wife is unsure. The main issue is that we have a young child (she'll be 2 in August) and next year we plan on having more. The hospitals in our area seem to only offer 12 hr shifts and since we have no family to watch our little girl for a few hours until we get home. As a result, my wife is considering staying in LTC until she can get into a FNP program but will that experience even count as Med-Surg? Anyone entered a FNP program with only LTC experience? Edit* Does working in a doctors office or clinic count as Med-Surg experience?

Why not get an Associates degree and work while getting your BSN? That way you can gain experience as an RN while you're working to get a online BSN and continue to work until you begin your NP program.

My dad, a Nigerian immigrant, was the same way except for me it was about joining the Army after high school. All he wanted me to do is be a doctor. It caused a lot of problems between them. I eventually had to do what I wanted to do with my life and so will you. It may help is you educate them about nurse practitioners even if you don't want to be one. Tell them you'd rather pay your way through school and make approximately 100,000 without any debt. Also, inform them that it's no real guarantee that you'll be a highly paid doctor. You could be a family doc making 150,000 with hundreds of thousands in debt.

Any chance a moderator can move this to a more appropriate forum?

I'm currently a second semester nursing student. I know that ultimately, I'd like to be a FNP so I've been looking at different programs. My top three choices are University of Al-Tuscaloosa, University South Alabama, and Samford in Birmingham. Everything I see about Samford looks great (the small class size, teachers care about you, and a Christian atmosphere) however the price is crazy high (approximately 30,000 a year for a full time student). Normally, I wouldn't even consider paying this amount but they do have a RN-DNP program and I'm wanting to join the USPHS anyway. There are federal agencies that I can work for while serving in the USPHS that will pay back 60 percent of my loans back in two years and 20 percent for every year after. Worse case scenerio is I don't get in the USPHS and I just go work for those agencies directly and still get the student loan repayment which is fine with me (cause daddy can't pay back 5 years of tuition at 30,000!) Anyway, I can never find WHY Samford's tuition is worth it. Everywhere I look online says that the classes are smaller, professor know your name and that's great but not great enough for me to pay 30,000 a year over 10,000 a year for UA and USA. Is there anyone in one of the nursing programs at Samford that can enlighten me? Do Samford professor tell you exactly what to read verses the horror stories I hear at some online nurse practitioner programs where students are given a hundred pages to study for one class but no guide on what's important? Why are all you guys willing to pay 3 times the tuition at Samford over the public colleges?

I am a current nursing student but before nursing school I was a cop for 5 years. I did not write nurses tickets for a few simple reasons. 1. I was a cop and I understood that I might get shot or in a traffic accident and that nurse that I ticketed might be on the team that saves my life. 2. In my area, an unreal amount of cops are married to nurses. I avoided taking money out of a cop's pocket unless I have no choice (driving recklessly or DUI are the only real reasons I can think of that I would ticket a cop or his family assuming they don't have an attitude). 3. Sometimes, we would have to sit at the local hospital with an inmate and I did not want to have to deal with a nurse I ticketed. 4. I was never one of those cops that sat posted up during times people are trying to get to work on time hunting people to ticket. I found it hypocritical ticketing people for speeding when they're trying to get to work on time when I did the same thing at the beginning of the shift (and I did it almost everyday lol).

I just like to say that you are an inspiration to me. I too have a background in law enforcement. I spent the last 5 years of my life a a cop (3 as a Deputy;2 as a University Cop). I originally loved it because I got to help people (plus the car chases were DA BOMB) but I soon began to fall out of love with it. Dealing with the same people with the same problems committing the same crimes started to affect me. Then all the crimes against police and the current climate where its always the police's fault made me want to go into nursing. My wife and I also had our first child a year ago and going to work watching other families go to events and have fun began to make me long for a job with either good hours or more days off instead of two days off in the middle of the week. I am currently in my first semester in nursing school and I'm doing well and having a good time. I hope that in 4 1/2 semesters I can be as successful as you.

Six hours in between or a period allowing 6 hours of rest? I'm not a nurse (start nursing school next week) but my current job didn't want to allow me the required 8 hours of rest time for military drill. My civilian job claimed that since I get off at 11pm and my drill isn't until 7 that they were giving me the required hours off. So, I had to look up the law and show them that it specifically says a period that is conducive to allowing me to get 8 hours of rest. No way I could get 8 hours of rest when you consider I have to drive home, shower, and get ready for drill especially since my unit is an hour away from my house.

Dang

When should nursing students interested in going Active Duty but going through an ADN program first and then doing RN-BSN? I'm starting an ADN program next month and set to graduate May 2018 with an Associates. Should I wait until I've finished my ADN and have been accepted into the BSN? I ask because it only takes 25 credits to go from ADN-BSN in my area so its not a lot of time to work with. I have a prior 4 year degree if that changes anything.

Hey did you ever find out the background check website?

It doesn't say that. Initials are not identifying info.

No. I'm taking human anatomy 2 in the fall.

Well, they posted the new nursing curriculum for like half a day in May and I just happened to be stalking the site and found it. NUR 112 is the only nursing class we take the first semester. NUR 113 second semester. NUR 114 and 115 third semester. NUR 211 fourth semester and 221 the last semester.