Questions about Navy Nursing

Published May 11, 2016

2 Posts

Hey everyone,

I am about to start my last year of my BSN (finally) and I am trying to go ahead and get a plan for what life looks like after graduation. One of the options on my list is applying for Officer Training School and becoming a Navy nurse. I have been thinking about this throughout my nursing education and recently spoke to a recruiter; however, I take everything that they tell me with a grain of salt as "they always tell you what you WANT to hear, and not necessarily the truth."

I have read through some posts on allnurses, but a lot of them are 5+ years old and I am not sure how relevant those posts still are. So, I have some questions for all you Navy nurses out there:

1. Do I have a choice in my speciality? I am very interested in ED, but will I get this kind of exposure in the navy hospitals? Even if I start in med-surg, about how long before I can transfer, and what is that process like?

2. Do I have a choice of where I get my DNP? My ultimate goal is having my DNP, but I want to have a say of where that degree is from.

3. Do I have a choice of what I specialize in with my DNP? Again, I want that acute care setting, but will the Navy dictate what I specialize in when getting my DNP?

4. What are your shifts like? How long, how frequent?

5. How often will I get new orders, where would those most likely be, and would I have a say in where that is?

6. What is a navy nurse (both RN and ARNP) scope of practice compared to it's civilian counterpart?

7. Is the pay (including benefits, housing, food allowances, etc.) comparable to that of a civilian nurse? Not that this is totally important, but ya know, gotta pay off loans and such.

Thank you so much in advance for helping me out!