USAF Nurse NICU Midwife

[crri0601bekah]

I am interested in becoming a nurse for the AF after my schooling is done. I am familiar with military life as my husband is enlisted in the Air Force, planning to stay enlisted and go career. I have been told it is possible for me to commission as a nurse with an enlisted husband and two children. I surely hope that is true because I have every intent of trying my best to do so.

I have many questions and I do plan to contact a recriuter. Just thought I would look for some first hand experience from any of you.

I want to stay within the maternal and fetal health field (whether I stay civilian or go military). First choice is NICU hands down. That has always been my passion.

Do you get to pick a speciality? What are deployments like for nurses in the NICU/Midwife/OB field?

I know our current station does not have a on-base hospital, so I imagine that limits the duty stations for that specialty quite a bit. Any clue on what stations would be available to me?

What are the chances of husband and I having the same duty station?

[hopeful_army_NP]

I'm not sure about the Air Force, but the Army has the Army Married Couples Program, according to what I researche 80% of the couples live in the same residence. The duty stations have to be, I believe within a 50 mile radius. If your deployments are opposite (which is what you would probably want since you have 2 kids) then when one spouse gets back the other may then be deployed causing for longer seperations. Also one spouse may decline and advancement opportunity in order to keep the couple together. I have seen positive and negative post on this subject. If you do a search on AN I'm sure you will find lots of info from couples who actually did it and survived it. Best wishes.

[crri0601bekah]

Thanks. I am worried about hindering my husband from doing what he wants if I only have certain locations available to me. His AFSC is contracted out to DOD civilians in many locations, so he is limited to certain locations as well.

He is excited of the prospect of being mil to mil. Excited to see me have a goal and something I am passionate about.

[The Little Greek]

I'm in OB so I'd be happy to answer any specific questions you may have. I had experience going in so I came in as a qualified OB nurse. Most of the RNs I work with wanted the OB track but there were a few that didn't but ended up there anyway. We have a NICU too and not one of those nurses came in as a NICU nurse. All of them were med-surg nurses and were volun-told that they would be transfered to the NICU.

As for choice of bases, you will be limited with OB and very limited with NICU because there are only a handful. If your husband's AFSC is also limited, that could pose problems for you in the future.

[crri0601bekah]

I'm in OB so I'd be happy to answer any specific questions you may have. I had experience going in so I came in as a qualified OB nurse. Most of the RNs I work with wanted the OB track but there were a few that didn't but ended up there anyway. We have a NICU too and not one of those nurses came in as a NICU nurse. All of them were med-surg nurses and were volun-told that they would be transfered to the NICU.

As for choice of bases, you will be limited with OB and very limited with NICU because there are only a handful. If your husband's AFSC is also limited, that could pose problems for you in the future.

Aw. I would gladly be volun-told to go to NICU!

I sort of figured that with the speciality. I am not sure about the limitations of the husbands choices, but I do know there are some. I will tell him to look into it if he actually catches some downtime on his shift tonight.

As for OB, what were the requirements to come on as that? and NICU if you may know? Do you need so much experience working in that speciality to come in as such? What bases are open to you as OB? Deployments?

Thank you.

[The Little Greek]

Aw. I would gladly be volun-told to go to NICU!

I sort of figured that with the speciality. I am not sure about the limitations of the husbands choices, but I do know there are some. I will tell him to look into it if he actually catches some downtime on his shift tonight.

As for OB, what were the requirements to come on as that? and NICU if you may know? Do you need so much experience working in that speciality to come in as such? What bases are open to you as OB? Deployments?

Thank you.

I wish I could help you with the exact requirements to come in a a qualified OB or NICU nurse but I can't really. When I was going through the application process I was told that a minimum of one year of experience in that field was required. In addition to that I had to go through a checklist with my recruiter which laid out in great detail the competencies required for OB. I'm not exactly sure how it was determined, but I was deemed qualified and this came in as a "3".

The three busiest hospitals for OB are Lackland, Langley, and Elmendorf. There are others, but if you are new to L&D when you come in you may want to ask for one of these three. They'll afford you the best experience. The PNC course (Perinatal Nurse Course) is offered at Langley and Lackland. It's a six week didactic/clinical course that introduces new nurses to OB. If you come in as a nurse without OB experience you'll attend this class at some point.

[lpetiya]

Any idea what deployments are like for OB or NICU?

[The Little Greek]

Any idea what deployments are like for OB or NICU?

I'm assuming you mean how often and for how long? We deploy for 6 months at a time then come home for a year and a half. Not everyone deploys every time their band is up, but it's always a possibility. I have colleagues who have never deployed and colleagues who have deployed two and three times. At any given time we have between two and five nurses from my flight deployed. Some go to Germany, others go to Iraq and Afghanistan.