Wanting to be a nurse in the navy

anchorRN, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN · Nov 25, 2016

Without having a Bachelor's of Nursing degree you cannot get a commission into the Nurse Corps.... However, if you enlist in the Navy there is a program called "MECP" Medical Enlisted Commissioning Program that will pay for your nursing school.

But, as always, there are strings attached:

a) There is absolutely NO guarantee you will get picked up for MECP as an enlisted servicemember. You would be able to separate and use your GI Bill to pay for school after your commitment is completed if you didnt intend on staying enlisted (usually 3-4 years).

b) The lowest ranking person who got picked up for MECP last year was an E5, which means you'd probably have to be enlisted for 5-6 years before you get into the MECP program, it will not be an automatic thing when you first join.

c) You need to really research your options because Enlisted life verses Officer life is completely different and lower ranking enlisted have very very very hard jobs.

With that being said, there is a STA-21 program (Seaman to Admiral) that also will admit lower ranking enlisted personnel to nursing school on the Navy's dime but those are very few and far between now. The program used to be robust but now with the flailing budget they only select 1/10th of the number of candidates that they did 5-10 years ago. And you are competing with personnel submitting packages for pilots, engineers, etc and I personally dont know anyone who got into STA-21 for Nursing.

Silverdragon102, BSN · Nov 25, 2016

Moved to the Government / Military Nursing forum

jfratian, DNP, RN, CRNA · Nov 26, 2016

The most economical thing would be to work and take classes at the same time. Associates degree programs in nursing are shorter and cheaper. There are all kinds of online associates to bachelors nursing programs that you can complete after you get the associates in nursing and obtain an RN license. As long as the both programs are accredited by agencies that the military accepts you're good to go.

If you're open to other branches, the Air Force still has retroactive loan repayment up to $40K. You still need to incur the loans in the first place, and they have to be certified by the US Dept of Education (i.e. many private bank loans aren't covered). There's no guarantee that money will still be there when you graduate in 4+ years.

There are also ROTC scholarships if you have the grades for it.