Who has been a nurse in the military?

[RB2000]

So I have talked to my wife and mother inlaw about joining the military after I finished nursing school. Well, after I complete BSN or MSN. They are not thrilled about the idea.

My question is how many here have served as a nurse in the military? Do you feel that you gained any valuable experience by doing so? Do you feel that it has helped your career any? Your thoughts on the pros and cons?

Thanks...

[Cynders]

Can't really help you here, b/c I am not a nurse yet.

But I was a medic in the Army. I loved it.

I think it has done wonders for me. Helped me to realize that I do want to continue in the nursing field.

As a medic we basically do everything that a nurse does....IV, injections, assess pt and present to the PA, etc etc...

Not sure if that helps you or not. I do often think about going back in the Army once I am finished with school.

Try posting on the military board. I am sure you would get alot of responses over there.

[USN2UNC]

BTW if you didn't know where the military board was.....

https://allnurses.com/government-military-nursing/

The military is a great life- if you are up for it!

Chuck

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

let me preface this by saying i have never been in the military; my husband was an air force nurse.

homer wasn't a real strong nurse to begin with, so he was very pleased with the respect his rank earned him once he joined the air force. (civilian nurses who make stupid decisions get treated like they're stupid.) he worked in a small military hospital in their icu, and none of the nurses i met were particularly astute. (i'm talking not recognizing the classic s/s of an mi. i had brought a pizza to homer and his pals at work, and not even the md on call recognized that chest pain with radiation, nausea, shortness of breath and st segment elevation might be a problem that required anything other than tylenol #3. i'm the one who asked for the ecg -- and interpreted it, suggested oxygen, morphine, nitrates, etc. and i'm the one who suggested it might be a good idea to transfer him to the large heart center in the city.)

homer and his friends are now crnas. the military sent them to anesthesia school. not because any of them was a particularly astute nurse or gifted student; because they put in their time and got "firewalled" evaluations from a nurse manager who had no idea what the icu was about.

homer thought the air force was a great deal -- and it was. for him. not so much for me. there was the neverending pressure to belong to the officer's wives club, volunteer at the hospital gift shop (even though i worked full time and was in graduate school), keep the lawn just so for inspections (we lived on the base, and homer was often away on tdy, so the lawn care fell to me), park my car in the precise correct place, and defer to anything my husband said no matter how wrong-headed it might be. i was told i was not an asset to his career because i was too interested in my own. and then, when i left him, i was told that was detrimental to his career as well. (maybe so, but it was life-saving for me!)

i'm sure there are some great military hospitals, and some great military nurses. i just haven't seen either. and while it may be a great career for you, your wife is going to be equally invested in the military lifestyle. she deserves a say in whether or not it's something she wants.

[Guest 360983]

I was a medic in the Army, and LOVED it. I only got to work a short time before medical issues forced me to leave, but I got to work with some people who really knew their stuff. I did work in what ended up being a specialty hospital that was good enough to occasionally take civilians that needed treatment in their specialty. I've seriously considered rejoining once I get my BSN.

Then I was an Army wife to an enlisted guy, and what Ruby Vee says was the truth for me, except I didn't live on base. I didn't live near base the first year we were married, when he was deployed, because I was living with friends instead of moving to the far away base and living by myself. The other wives never seemed to accept me after that--I wasn't enough of a team player for them.

My cousin was married to a Navy officer for awhile and the first group of officer's wives were very catty and never accepted her because not only did she work, she was an investigator for NCIS (not even a secretary or something more acceptable). The second group of officer's wives she encountered were much more laid back and were fascinated by her job (at that point, it involved lots of fun trips). I think every base is different, but bases that aren't the only thing in town seem to give family a bit more freedom.