U.S. Army Comt Medic to Civilian World

Fumanchuesday · Oct 23, 2015

If you are looking for critical patients, critical care would be the place to be. Emergency nursing would probably be closer to what you were doing (assess, triage, maybe stabilize, hand off to the doc), but they have to deal with a lot more less critical patients at times (belly aches and sore throats).

TheShaman · Oct 26, 2015

Thanks Fumanchu,

That's exactly the information I was looking for. I really appreciate it.

dec2007 · Oct 27, 2015

Critical care would be a great fit! Critical patients, the conscious ones are scared, the families need support.

And thank you so much for your service!

TheShaman · Oct 27, 2015

Thanks Billswife for the information, and thank you for supporting your military!

ckh23, BSN, RN · Oct 27, 2015

A trauma ICU may be a nice fit for you as well.

TheShaman · Oct 27, 2015

I'll take that into consideration, with my knowledge mainly based on trauma it just may be. Thanks ckh23

SororAKS, ADN, RN · Oct 28, 2015

I would be honored to work with any Medics. One of the best RN's I worked with ever was a Navy Corpsman. I agree with the above comments about Trauma ICU and ER. I think you would be great. Good luck!

TheShaman · Oct 28, 2015

Thanks SororAKS,

Many of us take great pride in our work. I've spent some time working with Civilians in a hospital setting and I must say it is a breathe a fresh air.

Thanks to all you guys comments I've made contact with one of the Medical Officers in my unit who is a ICU Nurse. I'm going to take her to lunch (my treat of course) and pick her brain.

TeeGee23 · Oct 29, 2015

I served as a Combat medic (68W) then advanced to a LPN (M6 now 68C) and now I am enrolled in a direct entry MSN, RN, CNL program, I definitely understand your dilemma. Nursing offers many opportunities, critical care may work for you, but you may find something else such as flight nursing, transport etc. All of which may require a critical care or emergency nursing skills. The 1st step would be to obtain as many college credits as possible and your pre-reqs for nursing programs (there are sme pre- reqs that are common to all nursing programs ) and start the application process.

Seek out preferable state schools that are veteran friendly and will give you the most bang for your buck via the yellow ribbon program in combination with the GI Bill and enjoy the stressful journey that is nursing school. If you are able to, consider a job as a tech in an ICU while in school to get a true feel for it.

I hope this info helps.

SummitRN, BSN, RN · Oct 29, 2015

Intermediate care technician in a VA ER while you take prereqs then get a vaneep scholarship so va pays your salary and tuition while you earn a BSN and you don't have to work during school. it's the best deal on the planet. Then work icu or er.

CCNP-FL · Nov 2, 2015

...could you guys help me discover a bit of a "happy" median? I love the thrill of providing care for patience in critical/acute situation but I also love interacting with the patient, teaching and guiding them. Is critical care nurse a good path for me?

To answer your question: Yes (in my opinion). As a critical care RN at my civilian hospital, I actively serve on the Code Team. We are also the rapid response team and go to pre-Code events as well (this differs on hospital, though). This would fulfill your "thrill" search, I suppose, but it will never compare to anything you did to earn a CMB or EFMB. Trauma ICU or Trauma ED may be more to your liking. I work in a South Florida non-trauma center, so the population in critical care are primarily elderly chronic disease patients (COPD, CHF, etc.) so the patient population is likely different from what you're used to. That may depend on your location, but there's a lot of geriatrics in critical care in America these days. So I will say that you may like the Trauma ICU or Trauma ED at a large teaching or urban institution.

I think that 50% of our jobs as critical care nurses is teaching family/patients so that may fit with your wishes to interact with patients. The other half is clinical assessment and incredibly close coordination with medical providers (PA, NP, MD/DO).

I think you would enjoy the critical care setting for the academic challenge and the responsibilities of being a code team member, etc. That or the ED. Think about becoming a PA if you like the autonomy of the medic, however. Many 68Ws I've met decided on PA instead of RN, though you may not find a lot of people thinking about that on AllNurses .

On my part, I've spent 6 years in the ARNG and have worked in a variety of civilian and military settings, but my experience has been primarily civilian. From long-term to critical care, I've worked the spectrum from PCA, LPN, RN, and now starting as an NP. I think if you do decide to go the RN route, nursing school will expose you to enough of each specialty that you'll be able to decide what you want to dabble in coming out of school.

Good luck on your decision!