1st Base Assignment USAF for 2010, need advice

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I will be graduating in about a year and I need to pick my dream bases. My options are: Andrews, Eglin, Keesler, Lackland, Langley, Nellis, Travis, Wright-Patterson, Mt. Home, Elmendorf and Landstuhl. I would like to work on a trauma floor or in the ER. Please let me know if you have any advice on which base would be best for trauma/ER and which bases are nice in general.

Are you going to be doing maternity too?

No, I'll be in the Pediatric clinic...I've got 10 years of Peds experience, so I got to stay in my specialty and my first choice of base too, I'm happy about that :)

Just got the logistics of getting my official orders (waiting on my MSN transcript to get my orders) and then getting my family and my belongings/furniture to the East Coast before I go to COT. Fun, fun, fun!!

When are you going to COT?

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Specializes in Mother Baby, and NICU.

I'm going to COT in August, so I'll be at Langley sometime after the 25th of September.

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BabyRN05

I actually live in Meridian and work at a local hospital. I'm going to MEPS next week and I was told by my recruiter I would go to COT in Aug as well. If every thing works out with MEPS and my Chief Interview??? I want to be stationed at Mt Home for my first assignment on the med/surg unit. I'm still in the dark about this whole thing, my recruiter is out of SL City and doesn't call or email much so we will se what happens. I'm not quiting my job yet!

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Specializes in Mother Baby, and NICU.

Well, I've done that all fairly recently. I did my physical on Feb. 13th, my Chief Nursing interview on February 19th, but it took a long time to get selected (I found out on April 22nd). I also worked with the recruiter in Salt Lake, and had my chief nursing interview at Hill AFB (they considered doing it in Mtn. Home, but I guess the chief nurse was really busy). Well good luck! You'll probably get Mtn. Home if you want it, because both the recruiter and the chief nurse at Hill joked with me about putting Mtn. Home on my list (it sounds like it's an easy base to get stationed at).

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Well, I've done that all fairly recently. I did my physical on Feb. 13th, my Chief Nursing interview on February 19th, but it took a long time to get selected (I found out on April 22nd). I also worked with the recruiter in Salt Lake, and had my chief nursing interview at Hill AFB (they considered doing it in Mtn. Home, but I guess the chief nurse was really busy). Well good luck! You'll probably get Mtn. Home if you want it, because both the recruiter and the chief nurse at Hill joked with me about putting Mtn. Home on my list (it sounds like it's an easy base to get stationed at).

Thanks for responding so soon, that puts me a little more at easy. It's just frustrating because some people at work know what I'm doing and keep asking me when my last day of work is. At this point I just keep saying that everything is still up in the air at this point. But I also have to think that if something was wrong with the application I submitted I would have heard something by now??? Good luck to you as well and maybe see yah in August @ COT.:up:

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Hi, I am an AF nurse 14 years and had been to some of those bases. If you want the best/ strong trauma nursing experience, I would recommend Lackland as your first assigment since they have an internship program. If you can get to Lundstuhl as your first base assigment that is good too! Moutain Home is in the middle of no where. Wall Mart is your biggest department store. Boise is a nice city but 51 miles away can be rough for winter drive and definitely not a whole lot of trauma in the ER. I am currently at Travis and would still recommend Lackland and Lundstuhl for trauma and real ER experience.

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Reply for BAByRN05, I was at Mountain Home AFB for 3 years and spend 2 years on Med-Surg and 1 year in Flight Medicine Clinic. I was there 2000-2003, OB is the primary reason why they still have inpatient unit. I am not OB so I usually take care of post partum patient and other medical surgical patients plus cover ER if you are on a night shift. I move 7 bases and I have to admit that Moutain Home is not my cup of tea. I was bored at work since my first base was Wilford Hall 60+ beds at that time (Lackland AFB in Texas), 2nd was Japan 28+ beds and....Mt HOme 21 at that time.

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we have plenty of codes on our unit to keep us on our toes :redbeathe we have to have acls to work on our med/surg unit. my problem is that we can't sell our house in this horrible housing market. i'm all for experience but i don't want to put my family in a financial disaster. i just wish the recruiter would confirm my appt for meps and cheif nursing interview.

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If you really want to stay in Moutain Home and make that clear on your dream sheet plus you have nursing experience, you should be able to get Mt Home with no problem. Stay in contact with your nurse recruiter. The AF is so short of nurses that I am pretty sure.... you are in. Not sure why but assignment at AFPC is running slow...even for some of us that has been in awhile we still wait awhile for our next assignment. Be patient and always have a plan B. How is rental market? Renting can buy you sometime for the market to come up plus good tax break. We have a rental in WA state, as you know, they down size McChord AFB. I am sure you will get what you ask for please let me know? I am very excited for you. I am retiring next year and still remember how excited I was to come in. All inpatient in the AF, it is a must to have ACLS and PALs because most unit are combined. When I was at Mt Home, I have ACLS/ PALS.

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Specializes in Mother Baby, and NICU.

GOAFNURSE what have been your favorite bases, and why?

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To BABYRN05, Okinawa Japan is my favorite base. I love the ocean!

Why: First-- Job with more autonomy; URI nurse run clinic, Patient Education Classess which break the humdrum of telephone consults. Task to go to a small ocean side village in Thailand for humanitarian mission.

Second: 1700 sqft home with ocean view, saved over $60000, travel around asia, got fit by being involved in sport activities 3-5k run/ walk, snorgling, water sports galore. The best deep sea fishing 40lbs tuna, Mahi Mahi.

The best for last: I met my husband there! Bottomline, okinawa is a beautiful island with lots of history! 2 years went by too fast for me.

I noticed you have NICU experience, you would work at Naval Hospital. The NICU is staff by Air Force Nurses and I heard it is a pretty tight unit.

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Specializes in Mother Baby, and NICU.

I have been selected to do maternity, so L&D/Postpartum, I float to NICU at my current hospital a lot (Level III NICU), but I don't take care of the super sick babies, but I love working down there, my home floor is Postpartum and Newborn Nursery.

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