btmbonze

AF

yea def depends on what type of team/location your deployed on CCATT TCCET DCS ect but i was more speaking in general. The battle tempo across the board is pretty low right now, if you deploy theres good chance you will spend most of your time in the gym, reading, or doing sick call related things. Hurry up and wait as they say. Just want to make sure OP is informed of what deployment can be like, and that alot of it isnt massive trauma 24/7 like you see in the advertisments. Not saying trauma doesnt happen because it does, but now adays theres good chance you will spend most of your time dealing with coughs n colds if you even see patients. This is issue military medicine is facing right now, not enough acuity. I know many docs and nurses that fell like they lost skills joining military and end up moonlighting civilian just to stay sharp.

from what i hear Most nursing deployments across the board arent seeing much these days.

1 year of experince is required (full time) + Bsn they will half your full time experince for rank so going in anything less than 4 years civilian you will be O1 (2nd Lt or Engsin for navy) but you will get credit toward next rank. So one year civilian xp gets you six months towards O2. takes total of 2 years to go O1 to O2 then two more from O2 to O3. These are automatic promotions only thing you have to do is fullfil time requirments and not get DUI O3 to O4 about 5ish years and require check list to complete + board review / approval ( rates r about 90%ish ) O4 tends to act as your nurse manager type role. So ask yourself this before you join. What do you hope to get out of the military career? Higher education? Staff nurse experince? I would map out your career before you start instead of playing by ear. nurses can sign 3 year AD contracts and obtain loan repayments (Up to 40K) Also as a side note the level of acuitity you will see in military is vastly lower then civilian side ( if you currently work at lvl 1/2 trauma center you are prob seeing sicker patients then you would in military).

Congrats on getting your foot in the door at a hospital pre graduation! Thats big step right there, get some hospital exp you can go anywhere. I actually started off on Geri med surg unit about 3 years ago when i graduated. Our floor was 48ish bed unit with 7 RNs, and 4 aides. Each nurse had 6 patients. It was remote telemetry unit ( This means a certified tele tech was watching all the cardiac monitors as there sole job, the RNs on this unit where not trained to watch cardiac monitors, in case of cardiac event we where told by tech what happened and passed message to MD) As New grad i had 3 months of orientation for the overnight shift. I felt completely overwhelmed. One of biggest things you do on med surg floor is administer medications! Tons of medications, piles of them. Remember every medication you administer you better no what is does and why the patient is getting it. As new grad i didn't no a lot of the common medications patient get off top of my head so i had to look up each med. This added a lot more time to med passes. My advice on this is to write down list of common mediations and take time to memorize them at home. Once i got on my own it took another 3 months for me to feel more comfortable. By month 9 i was bored silly and looking for change( no offense to other med surg RNs!!!). The Work load starts off overwhelming as new grad but once you do find yourself you will be able to manage 6 patients on most nights. (tho some nights might feel worse then others depending on patient personality + dx). Some of most common Dx i cared for: UTI (Very common, also remember this can cause confusion in elderly pt, confused pts love to try and get up) PNA, COPD, and CHF. If you are in US some common comorbidities people have but aren't necessarily admitted for are HTN, DM, Obesity. Some advise that helped me was: -Don't be afraid to ask stupid questions, just don't do stupid. (People tend to forget if u ask stupid question by next shift they don't forget you harming a pt) -The doctors are not gods gift to the world (despite what some will tell you), they are human and make mistakes, don't be afraid to correct them. -The MD is not your friend, and will through you under the bus if push comes to shove, (your license vs theres) so stay in your scope of practice and follow hospital policy. - Have postive attiutued / Ask for help / try help others when you can / Don't talk badly about co workers no matter what (esp since u are new guy wont go well for you) I personally found Med-Surg very boring and to predictable (i hate routine). I thought it was great way to get my feet wet and learn the basics. I would recommend it to any new grad, it will def help you find your niche in nursing world. I ended up moving to a busy level 1 ETD after my year was up. I enjoy the acuity more. Good luck on your career as a nurse!

On average 1rn : 10-14 pts mixed acuitity

Hello all, its been a dream of mine to become a flight nurse. I just wanted some input on how to become one, and some ways on how i should steer my career. Here is some background on me, I'm 23 yrs old and I graduated nursing school in 2014 (BSN) and started working at major hospital (#1 ranked in my state). I'm approaching my 1yr there on a med surge unit (beggars can't be choosers when it comes to first job :/ ) and thinking on transferring to ER or ICU. During my first year out of nursing school i became an EMT-B (volunteer locally and my god i love it!), ACLS/PALS certified, and am in the process of joining ski patrol (should be active this winter). Now I'm trying to plan out my next few moves and heres what i was thinking (i would love feedback) Transferring soon to ICU or ER ( i don't no what would be better to start with) and getting min of 1 yr experience then joining the active military (I'd rather join with critical care/ER experience so they don't force me into med surg role due to lack of experience). Then after spending some time working in ER/ICU in military getting certified in the specialty. This is as far as I've gotten. Does anyone have any idea if i am making appropriate moves? I was also thinking of becoming paramedic at some point. (Challenging there boards after i have some ICE/ER experience under my belt and running part time).