wife is a ROTC nursing cadet...

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Hi,

My wife is a ROTC nursing cadet at a college that has never sent a nurse through before... therefore we have plenty of questions. ;-)

Her goal is Active duty. We also have a large family (5 kids), and had to get waivers through for her to contract, which we did. I am prior service enlisted so know about the army but nothing about the officer and nursing side. My wife scores a 285 PT and is a 3.95 GPA. She goes to LDAC and air assault this summer.

1. We heard that new nurses can only be stationed at set number of duty stations for their first assignment? Is that true and what are they?

2. After being commissioned we understand she goes down to Sam Houston for a school of some sort... can someone give us breakdown of her first year active?

3. Not being afraid of deployment but not wanting to set herself up for a more likelihood, what can she do to help the odds favor a less likelihood of being deployed? Anything? I hope that question made sense...

I am sure I will think of more but thanks for now...

Researcher Husband

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hey,

i was in army rotc for a while...spent a long time getting in, also due to waivers, and though i've not yet graduated, i've heard a lot about where i'm going and what's going to happen next after this, so i'll tell you what i've been told.

1. we heard that new nurses can only be stationed at set number of duty stations for their first assignment? is that true and what are they?

this is true. your wife, as a new nurse, will be stationed at one of ten locations. she will provide the army with her first three choices (or five...depends on who emails you) and she is guaranteed one of those three. those possible locations are as follows:

fort hood, tx

fort sam, tx

fort bliss, tx

fort gordon, ga

fort benning, ga

fort bragg, nc

walter reed army medical center, washington dc

fort lewis, wa

hawaii

germany

2. after being commissioned we understand she goes down to sam houston for a school of some sort... can someone give us breakdown of her first year active?

the school at fort sam is bolc, which is basic officer leaders' course. i believe that lasts 12 weeks. it covers the nuts and bolts of being in the army, expectations of officers, field training, etc. i'm actually not entirely sure myself of what that entails and in what order, but i suspect i'll be finding out in due time!

after that, your wife will head to her first duty station. my understanding is that there is a full year after bolc of orientation under the guidance of an older nurse "preceptor". s/he will orient, educate and help your wife figure out what she wants to do in the military. the first area your wife will work in is med-surg, and i've heard that goes about 6 months. this is so nurses on the inbound can get the feel for what military nursing is all about, as well as establish a pattern/routine on med-surg. after that, there are another 6 months of moving around areas of the hospital, basically getting your hands dirty and seeing what area best fits the officer!

3. not being afraid of deployment but not wanting to set herself up for a more likelihood, what can she do to help the odds favor a less likelihood of being deployed? anything? i hope that question made sense...

if you find out, let me know! i've not heard of anything you can do to make yourself more or less likely to be deployed...guess that's a good question for an rn who is an officer.

hope that helped a bit...you'd be amazed what you can find if you just google stuff! and the folks around here aren't too bad, either!

mj

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BOLC is 9 weeks. The Nurse in Transition Program is 24-26 weeks. So after BOLC she'll report to her duty station and begin the NIT program. The Program is undergoing some major changes right now. When I came in we rotated throughout the entire hospital for 12 weeks then did a 12 week preceptorship on Med-surg. Now the rotations have been taken out and you just do a 24 week preceptorship. Depending on your hospital you may split the 24 weeks. We do 12 at Med-surg and 12 weeks on mother baby.

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Hello, how difficult was it for your wife to get accepted into ROTC?

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I am going to the August 29th BOLC class. I am an active duty Army member in the AECP program. Does anyone know how BAH works during BOLC? I will be attached to WRAMC while prepping for the NCLEX and waiting for BOLC to start. My wife will stay in the DC area during BOLC. Will I draw BAH based on Ft. Sam or DC? Thank you.

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You should get BAH for where your dependents are located, as long as they are under you in DEERS. My husband carries my daughter in DEERS, we're dual military, so I was considered a "single soldier" and didn't get any BAH during BOLC. :( But if you're not dual military or you are and the dependents are under you, you will get BAH for where your dependents are located. Just be prepared for it to take a while to get your pay right. I know it took a while at my class in July...

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Thank you! I got a good laugh out of the plan for the pay to be screwed up comment, as I'm saving some $ each month for the inevitable month or two without pay due to processing snags and delays. Thanks again.

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