Which Branch has more opotunities for officer nurses?

[Chissa0202]

Hello, I am a new nurse and working on med surge floor and be finishing BSN by next spring.

I was in the U.S. Army for years and became a nurse after honorable discharge. I was a grease monk mechanic.

I would like to go back to military as a RN, but do not know which branch I should go.

Which branch has more opportunities for nurse? Like assignments, scholarship, training, and etc....

Thank you for your advice.

[jeckrn, BSN, RN]

You will need to speak with a Healthcare recruiter since each service is different. Some might have more specialties but slower advancement. Schools can also vary. Sorry this is not much help but the ones with the answers you need is the recruiters. When you speak with the ask about how things really work not just what the regs say. A good example of this is when I talked to a AF recruiter. He stated that you can go to the Major board without a MSN; what he did not say which another one did is that you would not get picked up for Major if you did not have one. The first recruiter did not lie, but just was not forth coming with the proper information.

[jfratian, DNP, RN, CRNA]

I think it would be really hard to get the exact info you want on promotions. The best bet would be to speak to a chief nurse from each branch; they would be able to make an educated guess on where things are headed. You should be able to get promotion statistics for each branch from the recruiters. However, you really have no way of knowing what it's going to be like when you're up for promotion. That stuff changes all the time.

In my limited military experience, it doesn't seem like nursing is very different from branch to branch. These days, many nurses work with other services on the same unit doing the same thing. The key differences seem to be special assignments: a lot of AE and flight is AF and ship stuff is Navy. The Army brigade nurse role seems cool. However, the typical nurse doing hospital-based nursing won't see any difference in Army vs. Navy vs. AF.

[jeckrn, BSN, RN]

The recruiters can obtain the same info as the chief nurse when it comes to promotion rates, years of service needed etc. As jfrantian stated no one knows what the promotion rate will be from year to year.

[Chissa0202]

Everyone, Thank you for your responses. I am interested in Army and Navy. I will start process with two branches and see If I can pick up a nurse position.

Thanks