Portsmouth or Bethesda for new grad

Hi! I work at Portsmouth now and it's a good hospital. It's hard to get directly into ICU without experience but possible but more than likely you'll end up in Medsurg. Now at Portsmouth they've changed things around since I got here almost three years ago. The Nurse Residency program in now 6 months and wherever you're placed you must stay there for your time here at Portsmouth. So if you get placed in MedSurg unfortunately you won't be able to move to the ICU while here (but of course that can change) but I work in the Progressive Care Unit which is a part of the Critical Care Department so if you happen to get placed here you could move to the ICU since we're part of the Critical Care Department. This is a great teaching hospital and hopefully you can make your way into the ICU if you chose here!

Hello! I worked at Bethesda as my first duty station, so I thought I would weigh in as well. Much like at Portsmouth, almost all new grad RNs will initially be placed on med/surg (a few will do peds or postpartum initially, but definitely not ICU right out the gate). In theory, you could transfer to ICU after 18-24 months on your initial unit. However, staffing constraints and "needs of the Navy" can make that challenging (or, unfortunately, sometimes impossible).

Another factor that can work against Bethesda is that it is a joint command. The culture there is different than at a true Navy command, and being under Army leadership can affect your career. For example, Army nurses have an entirely different pathway to get to ICU. They submit a packet to "big Army" and are pulled by higher up (beyond hospital leadership) to attend an ICU/ED course, after which they usually PCS to a new command. In my case, having an Army division officer and department head made transferring much more difficult since they didn't really understand how different the Navy's process is and weren't able to provide the mentorship that Navy leadership could have.

Really, there are pluses and minuses to either command, but there are likely more similarities than differences. Luck and timing have a huge impact on success in the military, moreso than I would have thought before joining. Regardless of what you choose, good luck and try to keep your chin up if & when the Navy throws curve balls your way.

Also, one perk of Bethesda is its location. Washington, DC was a pretty amazing place to spend my early twenties. Even if I wasn't able to meet all my nursing career goals, my experience living in that area left me with plenty of happy memories.