U.S. Public Health -- Commissioned Corps??? NEED ADVICE

RNBelle · Jan 26, 2008

i looked at the site. looks very interesting, but you are right it is a little on the ambiguous side. my husband is in the Air Force so i understand the pay, benefits, etc. but i cant help with the job opportunities available. sounds like the pay and benefits are standard military/government bene's. 30 days vacation, housing allowance, etc. you can look up military pay charts. O-1 is an entry level officer and then depending on where you live your housing allowance will be added onto your base pay. you can look up BAH (basic allowance for housing) charts also. a good site for info on military/gov benes is military.com - they have all the charts there.

allnurses Guide · Jan 26, 2008

Hello All --
I am very interested in the US Public Health Commissioned Corps. The online application process is daunting to say the least, and I could use any and all advice from those of you who chose this career, or at least explored it and know more about it.
I would love your
P.S. -- I am currently looking to relocate to AZ. Attended a nursing career fair here in AL and spoke with a uniformed officer for the US Public Health Service. He gave me a booklet and pointed me towards the website, which is ambiguous when it comes to salary, actual requirements, etc....

USPHS is part of the uniformed services, so the pay/basic benefits are exactly the same as the military. The process to apply is a dual process: You apply for entry into the USPHS & you apply for a job at the same time. USPHS doesn't assign you to a job like the military does.

The lowest rank that nurses start out in USPHS (from what I read) is as an O-2/LTJG, but you can come in at higher ranks up to O-4 depending on education and RN experience.

Here is the link to 2008 pay table: http://www.dfas.mil/militarypay/militarypaytables/2008MilitaryPayChart.pdf (this is your only taxable income)---for an O-2 it is approx. $3000 a month.

BAS: is $203 a month

BAH (this is your housing allowance this is based on the zip code you will be working at) Here is the link: http://perdiem.hqda.pentagon.mil/perdiem/bah.html

for Tuscon w/ dependents it looked like $1230 a month.

So if you were living in Tuscon, Az and joined USPHS as brand new nurse/O-2 your pay would be:

Base Pay: 3000 a month/taxable

BAS 203 a month/non-taxable

Housing 1230 a month/non-taxable

Starting out you are looking at 4433 a month which only part of it is taxable, medical premiums are fully paid while active-duty, dental is about 40 a month for family....

Here is another link on other military benefits: http://www.militarybenefits.com/military_active.html

By the way there is a lot more information on the military forum.

Finally here is USPHS job list (this is only a partial list...there are several ways to look for a job with USPHS): http://dcp.psc.gov/VATS/rpt_create.asp

nurse2b_bakey · Jan 26, 2008

Thanks so much to you who replied so quickly.....planning to live and work across the country is quite a task. If anyone else has advice, please share!

Also, is the housing allowance for military base housing, or for a house of our choice?

:tku:

Becca

allnurses Guide · Jan 26, 2008

Thanks so much to you who replied so quickly.....planning to live and work across the country is quite a task. If anyone else has advice, please share!
Also, is the housing allowance for military base housing, or for a house of our choice?
:tku:
Becca

That is just how much you get for living off base. In general if you live on-base you give up your entire housing allowance as payment to live in base housing.