Unique situation, considering USAF

Wow - O-3 for a new grad! I was offered O-3 (and negotiated to O-4) with 15 years experience, 10 of that in a level one trauma center! I agree you should be questioning things...this does sound too good to be believed.

Got it Butch - that makes sense then. I was enlisted before and got out in 1980 (I'm old!). Have played with the idea of doing some reserve time but I have family responsiblities and unsure what to do.

Butch,

I am an Air Force critical care nurse at Keesler AFB and will be attending CRNA school at USUHS this summer. As a new grad you are still several years (atleast three) away from being able to apply to CRNA school with the AirForce, if you send me an email address I will send you last years call for canidates for AFIT it will explain all the details.

In general you have to have two years TOS before you even apply, and you need to have atleast one year critical care experience. Unless you come in with your ICU identifier, it would be next to impossible to go straight to ICU in the AirForce. The other thing to think about is mandatory retirement age and will you be able to meet that with your prior service time.

On the positive side the pay, benefits, and workload are great!

Good Luck! Let me know if you have any more questions.

4. What are the odds that if I were to stay in after CRNA school (it would incur an additional 3-4 year additional commitment after graduation) that I can just be a clinician? I have zero interest in commanding anybody or anything. Been there, done that. I want to manage and command me and my patients. Do military nurses have to go to Squadron Officer School and ACSC and all that silly stuff?

6. What about deployments? Is the USAF deploying people to fun places like Afghanistan? I know that's part of the game, but what are the real odds? Especially for a newly minted RN with little practical experience under his belt?

The commitment is 4.5yrs after CRNA school. As far as being a Commander...toward the end of your career around 15-17yr mark you will see most CRNAs becoming Flight Commanders for anesthesia, but usually the dept is so small (less than 10 people) that is not something you do full time it is just an extra duty. As far as SOS and ACSC.......nice try....lol.......I am finishing up SOS right now. All PME for your rank has to be completed before you go to AFIT or to be seriously considered for your next rank.

Deployments: Pretty much anywhere the Army goes anymore the AirForce medical people go.....Iraq, Afganistan, Qatar, Germany/Landstuhl, Kuwait etc....In the last few years the Air Force has placed a new empasis on deployment for medical personel.

As a new grad/new to AirForce nursing it is usually atleast 6 months before you will deploy, but for ICU nurses we are usually placed into our deployment cycle as soon as we inprocess at our base.

The AF recruiter that I talked to a couple of days ago said that you have to have a full year experience AFTER your NCLEX to count as any previous experience. If you do not, they count you as a new grad and you go in under the Nurse Transition Program. With this program, you choose either Med/Surg or OB. ICU comes after several years of Med/Surg nursing.

I am prior AF, so know what goes on in the AF world. I know about being deployable, etc. The recruiter that I talked to was explaining about being deployable every 15 months. You are deployable for 3 months. If you group gets called up during that 3 months, then you go. If you do not get called up during those 3 months, you are not deployable for 15 more months. Has anyone else heard otherwise?

I do know that many people asked questions about the CRNA program through the AF. The recruiter skirted around the issue. Lots of people want to do pursue that avenue, and there are few spots for it.

The recruiter gave you mostly correct information, but we no longer do 3 month deployments w/ 15month cycles. We are currently doing 4-6 month deployments, mostly 4 months, with an 18 month cycle. If you don't go during that AEF cycle...you can still be deployed in another cycle. They are not really supposed to do that, but they do it all the time to meet readiness needs.

As far as the CRNA application goes it is thru AFIT and the best thing is to ask your healthcare recruiter for a copy of the last nursing call for canidates (it is about 50pgs long) and will explain pretty much everything you need to know about getting into CRNA/ graduate nursing schools/fellowships thru AFIT. There are generally around 20 slots per year for AFIT CRNA school, I have been in over 5yrs, and have yet to see them fill all the slots when their is 20 something seats available. Most people that apply just don't really meet the minimum requirements.

If your ultimate goal is to come into the Air Force and apply to CRNA school then you should go into a large civilian ICU thru critical care residency course right after graduation and gain one year's experience as a new nurse/ICU nurse. About your 9-10 month point go talk to your AF recruiter, but make sure that he/she knows that you will not be coming on active-duty until after your one-year mark. At the one year point in ICU you will be able to come on Active-Duty with your ICU identifier, E designator, then you will be able to go directly into ICU in the AirForce. Now depending on what month you get to your new base, two-three years later you will be able to apply for a long AFIT slot.

FYI: The AF recently changed time on station requirements for CONUS to CONUS moves it is now 4-4.5 years instead of three, and I think there was a resulting increase for CONUS to OCONUS also....3-3.5 years instead of two, but still 2yr TOS required at most OCONUS bases before you can reapply for reassignment.

The whole process is complicated and the recruiters most of the time just do not know much about the medical/nursing field. Most recruiters come from the line side and have jaded view of what the medical field does.

Good Luck! I hope this helps explain things a little better.