Roll Call for all Military and VA Nurses and those considering the Service

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As the moderator for this forum ... I am interested to know where everyone is from, their background, branch of service (or VA VISN) and what they like the best about Military or VA Nursing .... this forum generally has some really good traffic, and I would like to pull all of us together and get to know one another a little better. :rolleyes:

Prior IC2(SW) USN Squid here

99-00 Great Lakes IC 'A' & 'C' School

00-01 USS Ardent Manama Bahrain

02-03 USS Ramage Norfolk Va

Spent 4 years in and loved it! Got out and earned a BA in Psychology from UNC Chapel Hill. After working in the Non Profit sector for a bit I have decided to go back and earn my BSN and get into the Nurse Corps. I am torn between the Army & the Navy... I am currently working as a PT aide and taking my pre-reqs to start in Jan '10.

Chuck

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Chuck,

Congrats on the decision. Does anyone know however, if the Army and Navy are still recruiting nurses? Both the recruiters I talked to said their "full" for the year, and the Navy guy said they discontinued loan repayment completely for nurses!

-Jon

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Specializes in Ortho-Med/Surg,Heme/Onc.

Hello

I am a fairly new RN, just switched over from private sector to VA. I am also a 10 year Army veteran, just got my comission in Army Reserves as RN. Actually my first drill and in-processing with my new unit is this weekend, and I already learned that they might be deploying soon. I joined this forum to learn from other nurses and share experiences

I just barely got in before they stopped the bonus, as so many RNs are joining the ranks

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SRCOSTEP student, graduating in May 2010 and going to work for BOP. I have 8 years previous military experience in the Army.

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Specializes in Anesthesia, ICU, OR, Med-Surg.

I am currently active duty Air Force. Been in for 9 1/2 years now. The Air Force has it's ups and down and is very political at times. I was a civilian nurse prior to coming into the Air Force, which bumped me up a rank. I came in as a First Lieutenant and currently I am a Captain and I just received a 'definite promote' to Major. The results should be out in March 2010. I am still undecided if I am going to stay in since I miss civilian nursing along with the pay and the ability to be in control of where I want to work, how I want to work, and when I want to work. I can also decide when I want to go to school and where it will be.

When I moonlighted for agencies, I was making double my military pay in 1 week. Now don't get me wrong, I have been to wonderful places during my time with the Air Force, such as deployments to Africa, Rebublic of Georgia, Asia, and Europe. My goal is to go to nurse anesthesia school and it seems I have a much better chance of getting selected by going through a civilian anesthesia program. The Air Force places so much emphasis on the GRE. They require 1000 on it. Most civilian anesthesia programs do not require a 1000 on the test and even more do not even require the GRE test for admissions. More and more nurses are getting out of the Air Force to pursue civilian advanced practice nursing programs.

Many of the nursing management/leaders, from my perspectives, are only out for their next rank and they do not mentor the nurses they supervise. I have seen nurses time and time again get out of their deployments because of who they know but yet others are giong 3 and 4 times to Iraq/Afghanistan. Many specialty nurses in the AF, who are Majors and above, try to get admin jobs to stay out of clinical nursing but when they deploy, they are clueless since many have not taken care of patients in their specialty.

I worked for 2 years with the Army at Landstuhl in Germany and I have an admiration for how the Army does business, especially on the nursing side of the house. In the OR, if you are a Major, Lt Colonel, or Colonel, you still worked in the OR taking care of patients just like the Lieutenants and Captains. If you have an additional duty, then you are allotted admin days (usually around 2-3 days a month) to work in that admin job, such as education and training, or quality management. In the Air Force, once you make field grade officer (Major or higher), many nurses do not give patient care since many are moved into commander or management positions, but yet, they are still deploying in their primary specialty and haven't laid hands on a patient in over 3-4 years, due to demand for OR and ICU nurses to deploy.

Hopefully I will make up my mind by April when I leave for my next assignment and then I will have one year left before I can separate from the military.

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Does it make sense to leave the Air Force when you are making a Major's pay and only need 9 more years for retirement? I understand there are problems with AF Nursing (also in civilian nursing), but walking away after 11 years seems (to me) somewhat shortsighted.

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Does it make sense to leave the Air Force when you are making a Major's pay and only need 9 more years for retirement? I understand there are problems with AF Nursing (also in civilian nursing), but walking away after 11 years seems (to me) somewhat shortsighted.

DO NOT GET OUT OF THE MIITARY NOW!! 9 YEARS WILL FLY BY, AND YOU WILL HAVE A MILITARY RETIREMENT TO THE TUNE OF $5000+ PER MONTH, AND FREE MEDICAL CARE FOR LIFE!!. (sorry about the all caps).

AF Nurses who I know that stayed in for thier 20 years, are now working for the VA, (part time), and banking all of their retirement pay for their actual retirement.

I am an AF Reserve nurse, and I have lost count of the number of nurses who say that they wish that they had gone into the reserves, and will now have an actual retirement to look forward to.

Yes, there is alot of BS. Yes, there are dowsides to it. But in just 9 short years, you are done! And collecting you retirement, life time BX and Commissary priveleges. free prescriptions at the base clinic, the list goes on.

Good luck to you inthe future.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Spokane, Washington

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Specializes in critical care: trauma/oncology/burns.

AirForceRN:

Why doncha think about going "Blue to Green"? after you make 04 and retain your rank? :rolleyes: I agree with aglages and Lindarn, you've only got less than 9 years....Would be a sin to give all that up. And, if you are considered PROFIS your deployment(s) would only be six months.

I understand about graduate school and how the Military still puts a lot of emphasis on the bloody GRE...[which is why I would pay for it myself at this point in my life]

C'mon over to the "dark side of the house" i.e., the US Army!

best of luck to you....

athena

Iraq

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Hi, I am an Orthopedic nurse for 3 years and was commissioned in July, 2009 but until now I am still waiting for my SO .... and training schedule... my recruiter has no information for me. Does anybody know how to follow up your OBLC training schedule? Any info would be appreciated. Thanks...

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I'm a newly graduated nurse trying to get into the Army, active duty. I was selected as an alternate after this past November board, so I'm unsure if I'll actually get selected....

Regardless, I'm excited about joining and until that happens I'm looking for other RN jobs locally.

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Specializes in L+D, ambulatory surgery, Womens Health.

I'm a womens health care NP and have been a nurse for 17 years. I have just taken my oath as a 1st Lt in the Army reserves. Waiting on my orders and should be attached to a unit in San Antonio. I also served in the Marine Corps 20 years ago. Looking forward to this next stage of my life/career. Also just completed my MSN and may start doing some adjunct teaching for a local nursing school.

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I am not an RN ... not even in the healthcare field. But my girlfriend will be graduating from the nursing program soon and is considering joining the Navy Nurse Corps.

I came upon this site as I was helping her conduct research on the Navy and I must say how touched I am about reading some of the stories posted here.

I'm no stranger to the military. I grew up a Navy Brat in San Diego and spent a few years as an Army Paratrooper myself. And it is endearing to know that you nurses who wear the uniform, despite the gripes I've read (that come with any job), do have a genuine empathy for the service members under your care. You guys truly are the patients' advocate.

As a veteran with a little military experience, I'm confident my gf will be in good hands should she decide to commit.

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