Quick Tip for ANYONE considering nursing in the military

Specialties Government

Published

Folks, a quick tip:

To pursue commissioning opportunities as a nurse in any - and I do mean ANY - branch of the US Armed Forces, please be sure you are talking to a Health Professions Accessions recruiter or whatever that branch's equivalent is. The folks you commonly meet in the the recruitment offices in shopping malls, plazas, and at high schools are ENLISTED accessions recruiters and generally know nothing about officer recruitment, much less health professions recruitment. You'll find a few officer recruiters that way, but most of them are strictly for enlisteds.

I'm only pointing this out because I've seen several posts that are leading me to believe folks are talking to enlisted recruiters only.

Another commissioning source may be ROTC; you can look up ROTC detachments through local universities and colleges. Any ROTC Det cadre member at any school in the country would be able to explain available cadet opportunities for nurse candidates for their particular service, if any exist.

For the Guard and Reserve, be sure the recruiter realizes you are ultimately interested in a commission as an RN by the most direct route possible - their funding and processes are a bit different from the active duty side of the house.

Just a quick tip. I don't want to see anyone get blindsided into enlisting when that's not really what they want to do. Once you're enlisted, becoming an officer is highly competitive and sometimes downright impossible. You want to go for the commission and the RN from the start if at all possible.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with being enlisted - I'M prior enlisted, my father was career Navy, my oldest brother is retired Navy, and my other brother is retired Army - that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is if you want to be an RN from the first moment you raise your right hand, you have to go for a commission and not for an enlistment.

Just my :twocents:

Oh no no, Im not decided on ANY branch. I was actually thinking I would want to do Army, if any. I know everyone says Army gets treated the worst or whatever, but it has the biggest Corps and I would hope that means more opportunities.

But essentially, there are no branches that would take a student nurse?

Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.
But essentially, there are no branches that would take a student nurse?

What good would a student nurse be to the military? You have to realize that is the mindset of the military. The only area where the military cares about students is via ROTC or if you are attending a service academy. Unfortunately they do not offer nursing as a major.

Specializes in Adult Critical Care.

It depends on what sort of opportunities you want. The AF has wayyy more flight nursing slots than the Navy and the Army. The AF also has full time special tactics medical units (Special Operations Surgical Team: SOST), which the other branches have not yet been able to fully copy yet (all 3 branches do have forward surgical teams which are only deployment roles to my knowledge). The Navy has the aircraft carrier ship's nursing slots; they also have the Mercy and Comfort hospital ships. The Army has the brigade nurse and the cultural support team.

The Navy also hires line officers via direct commission (i.e. no ROTC or academy). My friend now flies F-18s and entered the Navy via that route.

No branch would take a student nurse in a nursing role. You would be forced into being an enlisted medical tech job, and would not be allowed to easily commission once you graduated from your BSN.

So, your options are: 1. Enlist. 2. Direct commission with that Chem degree in a non nursing job 3. Do the BSN and then commission.

+ Add a Comment