Reserve RN questions

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Hi all! I would be so grateful if anyone on here could share their experience as a Reserve RN. I have been going around in circles on the internet. I am 38 and have taken almost 5 years off from nursing now because I was having kids, etc. I am looking to start working again and keep thinking that military nursing feels like something I'd really like to do if possible. I don't have any prior military experience and my nursing skills were good not that long ago but definitely rusty at this point. When you are a Reserve nurse, is the expectation that you also have a full-time nursing job so that you can just hit the ground running? Or will they help give you the experience to keep your skills up? (Or freshen them up in my case.) When they refer to one weekend a month - is that from Friday afternoon and sleep somewhere else until Monday morning? Or does that mean that you go somewhere Saturday and Sunday during the day and sleep at your own place at night? Is it always the same weekend? And it sounds like there are 5 weeks of training in the beginning and then 2 weeks each year?

And I would really love it if anyone could speak to their overall feelings about being a Reserve RN. Do you like it? How do you juggle it with your kids and other commitments? Was it a difficult role to transition into? Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and offer any feedback/advice that you might have!

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Specializes in EMT, ER, Homehealth, OR.

You need current experience to make yourself competitive in today's environment. They will not send you somewhere to get you back up to speed. Depending on the unit there is a good chance you will not see any patients on your weekends or 2 weeks active duty. Drill weekends are usually Sat and Sun, but at times can be up to 4 days long. They will assign you to the closest medical unit to where you live. If it is greater then 50 miles you will be put up in a motel if there is money in the budget. That can change from month to month. You are not able to sleep at the reserve centers since they are not designed for sleeping and do not meet fire codes for that.

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Thank you! That helps a lot. I am in the DC area so I am guessing that there is probably a medical unit not too far from me, but it sounds like I would need to have a full-time job in order to be a Reserve RN also - which just wouldn't work for me right now. I appreciate your taking the time to answer my questions.

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Specializes in EMT, ER, Homehealth, OR.

I would say at least a part time job not necessarily a full time job.

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Specializes in Emergency Medicine.
Thank you! That helps a lot. I am in the DC area so I am guessing that there is probably a medical unit not too far from me, but it sounds like I would need to have a full-time job in order to be a Reserve RN also - which just wouldn't work for me right now. I appreciate your taking the time to answer my questions.

If you aren't able to commit to a full time job, I would not join the reserves. What happens if you get deployed and are gone for 6+ months. We live in a very unpredictable works currently, and deployment in short notice is a very real possibility.

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Specializes in EMT, ER, Homehealth, OR.

There would be no difference if you work full or part time if you get deployed. You still have your redeployment rights.

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Specializes in Emergency Medicine.
There would be no difference if you work full or part time if you get deployed. You still have your redeployment rights.

I meant it as in, you can't commit to a full time job, but you can commit to possibly deploy for months at a time? That does not make logical sense if you have other commitments you can't leave.

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Specializes in EMT, ER, Homehealth, OR.

Understand what you are saying about not being able to commit to a full time position and then deploy. If you have family commitments which do not allow you to be away from your family how are you going to be able to be away from them months at a time and maybe only getting a phone call once a week at best because of where you are at.

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I can only speak to the Army Reserve part of this question, but the Army did have a very specific competency list that had to be checked off by a manager at my civilian job as part of the application process. So the lack of FT employment could be an issue. Best to talk to a healthcare-specific recruiter (not just the local military recruiting office) to find out what requirements they would have for your specialty. My specialty was OR nursing, other specialties may have different requirements to join. Good luck!!

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Specializes in ICU, Management.

*NTVASTATION

I am interested in where you are currently in your process and how things have been going?

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I can only speak to the Army Reserve part of this question, but the Army did have a very specific competency list that had to be checked off by a manager at my civilian job as part of the application process. So the lack of FT employment could be an issue. Best to talk to a healthcare-specific recruiter (not just the local military recruiting office) to find out what requirements they would have for your specialty. My specialty was OR nursing, other specialties may have different requirements to join. Good luck!!

Can you give me any insight to the OR position in the Reserves? I am looking to join with 12 years OR experience. I just wonder what exactly I would be doing.

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Specializes in Cardiology.

Yeah Im interested in the OR aspect too since I may make the switch to OR later this year.

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