Want To Become A Navy Nurse

jfratian, DNP, RN, CRNA · Aug 5, 2014

During your interview (for the Air Force at least), you will visit a military treatment facility. The chief nursing officer that you interview with at that site might be able to facilitate a tour. I can honestly say that (other than the uniforms), you'd be hard-pressed to find any big differences in the way a military hospital works vs. civilian hospital (let alone navy hospital vs AF hospital).

When you hear people talk about how bad the army or marines treats people, they are generally talking about the enlisted side. Officers generally have it pretty good in any branch.

jfratian, DNP, RN, CRNA · Aug 5, 2014

The big advantages of military nursing to me are the superior pay/benefits, greater room for career advancement, travel opportunities, and continuing education opportunities.

The downside is lack of control over where you live/work and the strain of often not being able to see family/friends as much as you'd like. There's also a lot of bureaucratic nonsense that makes it complicated to even go skiing (fill out a form and meet with your commander).

edvaz90 · Aug 5, 2014

hhmm thank you! My gut and heart really moves towards the air force, but I really want to at least look into the other branches as well. I wouldn't want to miss out.

B_OTT · Aug 5, 2014

Can a navy nurse explain to me how what base you are stationed at. You go to recruiting and you guarantee your minimum right. But I read someone say you are deployed for one 6 month time. Is deployed only considered being abroad? So if you ended up on a base abroad you wouldnt be moved?

Also what if you want to strictly stay on a ship for x amount of years? Is that possible?

edvaz90 · Aug 5, 2014

Do any navy or air force nurse know of any difference between traveling? Yes I know the military is not a way to get to vacation spots but it is a good way to see the world. How is it traveling and seeing the world as an air force nurse? How is it as a Navy nurse?

sbush86 · Aug 5, 2014

Ok, straight from the horse's mouth. I am an Active Duty Navy nurse, and I have been for the past 5 years. I started out brand new, no prior experience in either nursing or the military (22 years old, had just graduated from college). I am currently a Lieutenant (O-3, same as Captain in the other branches).

As far as getting your degree while AD, the only way that is possible is if you are enlisted and then get accepted into the very competetive MECP program (Medical Enlisted Commissioning Program). You would have to serve a tour as an enlisted person first, and then compete to get accepted into this program. Once accepted, you are still active duty and get your active duty salary and benefits, but your only job is to go to school. A sweet deal, BUT, you have to be willing to come in enlisted and there is no guarantee you will get accepted.

I did the Nurse Candidate Program. If you go to a school where there is NOT a Naval ROTC, like mine, then you are eligible for this program. You apply right before you start your upper division nursing courses, and if you are accepted, you get a $10,000 sign on bonus and $1,000 a month until you graduate (I think it came out to around $34,000 total). Once you graduate, you go to Officer Development School in Newport, RI for about 5 weeks and then its off to the Navy you go!

If your school has NROTC, that is the way to go. If you still don't want to do that, you can always finish school as planned, and then go for a direct commission. That is where you have graduated, and go to an officer recruiter and they allow you to enter directly (usually there is a sign-on bonus, but it tends to be less than the Nurse Candidate Program bonus). You then do as above, go to Officer Development school, and then off to the Navy.

They typically start you out at one of the Big Three Naval Medical Centers (Porstmouth,VA, San Diego, or Bethesda, Maryland). Unless you had prior nursing experience in a higher echelon of care, they will start you out on a Med/Surg floor of some kind. Typically, you can then transfer to ICU, ER, etc, after doing 18 months of Med/Surg to build up your skills.

I have never done Army or AF nursing, but I can tell you this: the Navy has allowed me to go on an Army deployment. It has allowed me to go on a Marine Corps deployment (we provide the medical care for the USMC). Because the armed forces are on a joint model these days, you can deploy to just about anywhere that another branch is. With the Navy, you get the added bonus of bases in great locations (we are near water! That means beaches!). The AF gets a bad rap amongst the other services because they tend to deploy for less amount of time and have cushy facilities, but then again, they also have to go to places like North Dakota in the middle of nowhere.

If you are looking to do some exciting stuff, the Navy allows a lot of opportunity. Personally, I am about to be stationed on the USS Ronaled Regan aircraft carrier - what better what to travel and see the world than on a ship that stops at multiple ports around the world?

There are downsides, of course. We are salaried, which means NO overtime, NO differential pay, and since you belong to the government, you can be ordered to work up to 18 hours a day (has only happened to me once). Worked a holiday? Sorry, no extra pay. You also cannot travel more than 300 miles outside your duty station unless you are on leave (being UA is no bueno). You have to move about every 3 years. You cannot call in sick, ever (if I get sick, I HAVE to be seen by my provider and then be given official sick status. It can be annoying, especially if you work in an are with a ton of civilian nurses who ARE allowed to call out and then you wind up having to cover for them - hence that 18 hour work day I had that time. Or, they will call you in and you HAVE to go).

But honestly? Military nursing is great. The lifestyle is not for everyone, and sometimes just one or two tours is all anyone wants. But I think the exceptional benefits are worth at least one tour (3 years of your life? That is nothing and goes by super fast!).

Ok, I'm done... sorry so long!

edvaz90 · Aug 5, 2014

sbush86 thank you so much!! That's the kind of insight I'm looking for, just some in depth info about where you'll work and how life is in the navy. I'm asking the same of air force nurses too. I know if I go in after obtaining my BSN (which is what I would end up doing) I'd have to apply to go officer training school and do med/surg for a year or two maybe more if they don't let me transfer. I'm trying to find which branch would best fit me and my goals. Thank you very much, that was very helpful. What kind of nurse will you be on the carrier, have you worked in the ships before? How was that experience. Also what kind of nursing and where did/ do you work when you are stateside?

B_OTT · Aug 5, 2014

sbush86 What is the most preferred specialty for getting on a ship? Did you ask for/volunteer or were you just placed there?

Only ask because I will have some ICU experience prior to having my BSN and I would love to have the experience of being stationed on a ship but from what I read elsewhere there is only 1 RN and it is only on aircraft carriers and then however many total are on the comfort and mercy so seems like it could be really hard to end up on one.

sbush86 · Aug 5, 2014

To be on a carrier, you need to have ICU or ER experience first.

So a snapshot of what I have done:

I went to ODS in July 2009. After leaving there, I headed to Naval Medical Center Portsmouth in Virginia. I started out on a Med/surg floor but I was fortunate in that it was an inpatient Hematology /Oncology unit. I never knew I would fall in love with oncology, but I did. Others who came in with me went to ortho, general surgery, internal medicine, complicated OB, and mother/baby.

In 2010, I was selected to deploy to Djibouti. I left Portsmouth and upon arrival in africa, learned that i would be 1 of 4 nurses there. It was an amazing experience: I did sick-call (clinic), ER, PACU, OR, and ICU there because, having only 4 nurses, we didn't have the luxury of calling a nurse from that specific area to work there… we all did it and learned fast. Side note: this is also where I met my husband :-)

After leaving africa, I went back to Portsmouth and worked in the PACU. i was there for about another year and then it was time to move, so I left, went to Pensacola (where I still am), and worked in the ICU. I was in ICU for about a year and a half and got my CCRN (which, by the way, they will give you a bonus for). After i promoted to O-3, I moved to be the division officer (clinic manage) of an ENT, Auddiology, and Opthalmology clinics, which is what I do now. In May, they posted all the operational openings, which include carriers, flight nursing, etc, and I applied and got accepted to go on the carrier for 2 years. While on the carrier I am the only nurse… the. ONLY. One. which will be…interesting. So soon, the husband and I will move to the west coast (San Diego) to attach to the ship, and then in November we will move with the ship to Japan.

Going operational can be competitive, but really, as long as you stay active and involved in your command, you should have a strong application. Get your ICU or ER time in (you will need about a year) and your certification in whichever one you choose. The comfort and Mercy will go out periodically on humanitarian missions, and that is considered a deployment. They take med/surg, so they are typically easier to get on than the carriers (but they aren't impossible!!).

Hope that helps!

B_OTT · Aug 5, 2014

Thanks for the reply that is great news. Sounds like you have had a lot of great opportunities so far.

One more thing, if you or any other nurse can shed some light on rankings. Is it all based on years in. I know you can either go in as o-1 or o-2(if you have enough previous experience) but when I looked at the navy website it seemed like it was a mix between years in and education. Can a regular RN(not CRNA or NP) make it all the way to o-6 if they put in over 20 years?

sbush86 · Aug 5, 2014

They can and they do, BUT, in order to make 0-5, you HAVE to have a master's degree. That is true for the entire military, not just nursing or medical, but anyone. It could be in underwater basket weaving, as long as you have your master's you can progress in rank. A lot of people do an MBA. For instance, I know an O-5 Periop nurse who got his MBA, without any other degrees. His lack of master's in nursing did not impeded him one bit.

so if you don't want to go the NP or crna route, you can do a lot of other things, including CNS, administration, informatics, etc. As long as you get your master's sometime before you are up for O-5.

jfratian, DNP, RN, CRNA · Aug 6, 2014

It is possible to start at a rank above O-1 if you already have RN/NP/CRNA experience or if you have a master's or doctorate degree. Every branch has their own unique requirements. In the Air Force, they award you roughly 50% of your civilian nursing experience and 100% of the time spent on nursing education beyond a BSN. If you had an MSN and a few years of experience, you could enter as an O-3. The Air Force also awards fractional ranks/time-in-grade: you might have 2 years of civilian experience and they will give you 1 year of credit towards the next rank. They only do this when you are direct commissioning, however. You don't magically promote once you're in because you finished a master's degree.

While nurses can hypothetically promote to O-9 (Surgeon General: right now the Army Surgeon General is a nurse), most nurses can only reasonably expect to promote to O-5 or O-6 (if they really stand-out).