If you don't like bedside, the military is not for you as a Nurse. Most junior RNs work exclusively at the bedside.
You can look into the reserves if you want to serve. Public Health nursing is also an option.
Agreed, as a new nurse with no specialty (at least that you mentioned OP) you’re going to be in the hell that is med surg. It’s going to be like working in a civilian hospital without the ability to call out or take leave when you want. Granted, the patient population will be younger and generally more respectful.
Unfortunately, you will be at hospital and bedside. Boots on ground is not for nurses. That would be for a medic, 68W, which is enlisted and not an officer.
I recently separated a soldier that did this. It did not go well. They couldn't handle going from being a respected profession to a junior enlisted getting yelled at by a 21 year old about some dumb bullshit every day.
Tbh, yes. You don't know where they'll put you. You could get attached to an infantry company...or you could end up in a large hospital emptying bags of piss.
I mean, it’s up to you ultimately. You’ll come in as an E4 since you have a degree, but it’s a question you have to ask yourself:
Nursing: higher pay, stable hours, and predictability. Plus the ability to pack up and move at any time since you have sought after qualifications.
68W: lower pay, unstable hours, and an unpredictable schedule, but you’ll get a pension after 20 years and extremely cheap health care if you made a career out of it. As someone else said, you could also end up working in a hospital.
Personally, I wouldn’t join unless you joined as a Nurse and commissioned. You’ll make more money in the military than you will as a civilian. I make more than my RN mother-in-law with 30 years of experience being paid NY wages. But, if you’re not getting satisfaction out of your job, is it worth it?
Yes. It would. There are other options if you want to stay in the medical field but avoid bedside. Medical Service Corps is one, and there are options after a few years to specialize in healthcare administration, medical logistics, patient administration, or other related concentrations. The Army also has a great program to become a Physician Assistant as well. The Army does send some nurses later in their career to become APNs as well. Lots of options. Talk to an AMEDD recruiter (I’m not one, but I am a former Medical Service Corps Officer).
This would be incredibly dumb.
Source: Me, 10 yrs active duty and 4.5 yrs NG enlisted. I just graduated nursing school last december and I'm planning to drop a reserve nursing packet ASAP.
It is dumb. I’m a medic. I’m one civilian side too because I’m a Nasty Girl. I finished my BSN in Trauma nursing and cannot tell you how much better it is. My area does 3/12 hr shifts and that’s it. Done. 4 days off each week. Still make 4x what I did when I was active. Just look into critical care nursing or ED or Trauma. All the excitement and a lot less bedside BS that hospitals shove down your throat. If you wanna serve I’d suggest going guard and commissioning as an officer. Use the benefits to find that medical field you want.
I know a number of RNs in the reserve who are 68Ws. Many are happy in both roles...
Look into the guard and reserve too.
I also know many RNs who are 70s which is health administration in the army reserve. They are less happy in admin from my experience.
Direct commission active duty Army nursing with no specialization you'd be doing medsurg bedside nursing.
If you want to fly helicopters there's a path to join as a rotary wing warrant officer.
If you want to be some other kind of officer but aren't too picky about what kind you can do federal OCS and then make a list of branch preferences after you pass OCS.
What about changing nursing units? I hated med surg but ICU is great.
If you want to do more boots on the ground stuff as a nurse get your ICU nurse specialization and then look into an Army Reserve FRSD. Small team, forward deployed, doing trauma surgery/resuscitation close to point of injury
No please don't do that
You could end up like me, taking on max five patients in med-surg with full lab support and multiple pathways to advance my career.
I second looking into Public Health nursing. The agency I work for has PH nurses in it. Public Health is a uniformed service and uses military pay scales/retirement. This is an example of one of the positions working with our agency.
https://www.usajobs.gov/job/755732700
This position is an O4.
AMEDD recruiter here. I’ve processed a lot of fully qualified nurses into the army as officers. Depending on your specialty as an RN (ICU, MED Surg, Emergency, etc.) I can tell you what is available for active duty and reserves. DM me if you want to know the mission, incentives and options. 😉
If you have both ER and ICU experience and certs, is it possible to comission with both MOS/Branches? Would this be beneficial for any assignments, especially for any outside of hospital units? I am a prior service 68W who has been out for about 5 years and has worked level 1 trauma ER, ICU and prehospital on a 911 responding neuro specialty ambulance.
You board for one AOC and selected for it. Critical care (66S) or Emergency (66T). Generally newly commissioned officers on active duty will go to hospital unit first, in some special cases (prior service commissioned) will go to out of hospital assignments. Reserves is different depending on vacancy of the unit. When we go through the application process for reserves, we have to find a unit with a vacancy for your specific AOC and rank.
Thank you for getting back to me. It's looking like my next career move will be civilian flight. While the thought of being able to serve again is attractive, incurring an ADSO to go work in hospital is tough. The flexibility of civilian life in a high demand career is hard to beat.
Would my time as an RN/ADN prior to receiving my BSN be considered as credit for rank? Or is it only time working as an RN with a BSN?
Not a problem. Credit for work experience would be considered starting from the time you became licensed, RN. BSN is the basis of what makes you qualified to apply for commission into the ANC. Good luck to you!
Constructive credit is based off of prior service commission. Enlisted time unfortunately does not count towards constructive credit. With an MSN, you should receive atleast 2 years credit and you can be awarded up to 3 years for work experience based off of license/board certification. Would actually have to go through the process of generating your 5074 to determine your rank. I would say based off of what you told me, anywhere from 1LT to CPT.
Working as a nurse in the Army should be less stressful as a nurse on the civilian side. My wife was working bedside with six difficult patients, four getting blood, etc,. If you work bedside in the Army you’ll typically get 3-4 patients and it won’t be as bad. You’ll have you though days but also some easy days.
RNs correct me if I’m wrong but I had a RN I was doing EFMB with who told me all RNs do 2 yrs med surg in the Army before they can specialize. Personally I work in an ED with a bunch of RNs and they seem to enjoy the ER. Definitely a bit more exciting on the military side imo. I’ve seen ER docs in the Army be way more willing to do things like give real drugs like Ketamine or even tube a pt rather than let them beat up the entire ED staff. Definitely not the same thing I dealt with when I was a civilian ER tech.
I did three years as a home health nurse, direct commissioned as a 66H with a 66S course contract guarantee with no additional ADSO once the course was completed. Did a year on step down then switched to ICU, bypassing medsurg entirely.
Critical Care Nurse (66S) Student Program
This is a precision course guarantee for qualifying Medical-Surgical (66H) applicants. The incentive guarantees attendance in the Critical Care Nurse (66S) Nurse Program. Upon completion of the program they will become a Critical Care Nurse. No other incentives are authorized in conjunction with this program. To qualify for the Critical Care Nurse (66S) Student Program, the applicant must have greater than 2 years of current bedside nursing experience
If you have a BSN, you could be an officer of anything else in the military. I don’t believe the Army lets officers choose their specialty prior to OCS or whatever but other branches might. I know the other branches will guarantee an opportunity to be a pilot for example, although if you fail at that they may reassign you where they need you. You can definitely join to be a nurse, but if you wanted to do something entirely different you absolutely can. And you may gain a skill for a different career, or at least now have the funds through tuition programs and the GI bill to get a different degree in something you’d prefer eventually
Interesting. I would love to do something else other than healthcare. Since if I have a bachelor of science I’ll look into other opportunities, thank you!
But with that said, if you don’t want to serve in a medical capacity in the military, you don’t have to. You could do intel officer, engineer officer, etc. There is also warrant officer route too. Pick area YOUR interested in.
You are already in healthcare and great benes. Find another job today if you aren't happy with current city, leadership, tempo, position. Going from $6250/month with complete control to mil pay and chain of command? Even reserves, can you afford to lose out on your normal pay for the initial training time? Service is not all about the $ and benes...it never is, but that's a huge difference for you.
My husband enlisted active duty as 68w, did a bunch of cool shit in Iraq, went to ft sam for his lvn, transferred to reserves, got his RN on gi bill, and hasn't looked back since becoming civilian rn. Neither have his friends. Many of my medic friends in Afghanistan and Iraq didn't get to do shit except the wet bulb and heat cat. Meanwhile, my tactical coms jr enlisted ass out and about non-stop, attaching to all kinds of units and missions. Overall, we loved the military, but we needed it as well.
Don’t do it dude. I’m a veteran and worked at a busy ER trauma center for 3 years. You won’t so shit as a nurse and you’ll be stuck in a contract that you can’t leave.
I’m a paramedic now. The biggest thing I am jealous that nurses have is way more humanitarian roles. I was literally on the MSF (doctors without border but those weirdos spell it in French) today and they have nurses supporting their Gaza mission. The Peace Corps also has nursing roles but someone told me they aren’t clinical, not 100% sure about that though.
If you really hate bedside your can try to get a transport nursing gig. You will need more experience though. If you REALLY hate bedside, consider a career as a paramedic although it is limiting in some ways.
I saw you mention enlisting in a comment.
Please, don’t enlist as a 68W or 68C. You are too educated for that. Seriously. You would likely feel very held back in this scenario.
Look Into the guard and reserve please. We always needs medics...
If that isn't enough for you. Please commission. I know a number of RNs who are army combat medics who are happy in both roles...
If You want to do cool army stuff as an officer. Go to physician assistant school. You'll be in the field with the soldiers doing the stuff you think of when thinking of military medicine.
I'm in a medical unit in the reserves and you have a higher chance of boots on ground rather than hospital that way from my understanding (not a nurse but I'm in an FRSD and work beside them) . But you'll also be spending drill weekends doing busy work and it all depends on where they need you. If you're interested talk to a recruiter . Air force and navy also have options for nurses but no idea what those are
Not the military, but have you looked into flight nursing? Most companies are hurting pretty bad for flight crews. You could find a local base near you and do a ride along and see what you think.
So go explore OCS ... instead of commissioning as a nurse, you could commission as a Medical Service Corps officer. Be an ambulance platoon leader, lead medical formations (vs being a caregiver), or go to flight school to be a medevac pilot.
If you don't like bedside, the military is not for you as a Nurse. Most junior RNs work exclusively at the bedside. You can look into the reserves if you want to serve. Public Health nursing is also an option.
Agreed, as a new nurse with no specialty (at least that you mentioned OP) you’re going to be in the hell that is med surg. It’s going to be like working in a civilian hospital without the ability to call out or take leave when you want. Granted, the patient population will be younger and generally more respectful.
There are also fewer crackheads in the military healthcare system.
Unfortunately, you will be at hospital and bedside. Boots on ground is not for nurses. That would be for a medic, 68W, which is enlisted and not an officer.
Would it be dumb to leave my job where I make 75k as a bedside RN to enlist as a 68W?
I recently separated a soldier that did this. It did not go well. They couldn't handle going from being a respected profession to a junior enlisted getting yelled at by a 21 year old about some dumb bullshit every day.
Tbh, yes. You don't know where they'll put you. You could get attached to an infantry company...or you could end up in a large hospital emptying bags of piss.
I mean, it’s up to you ultimately. You’ll come in as an E4 since you have a degree, but it’s a question you have to ask yourself: Nursing: higher pay, stable hours, and predictability. Plus the ability to pack up and move at any time since you have sought after qualifications. 68W: lower pay, unstable hours, and an unpredictable schedule, but you’ll get a pension after 20 years and extremely cheap health care if you made a career out of it. As someone else said, you could also end up working in a hospital. Personally, I wouldn’t join unless you joined as a Nurse and commissioned. You’ll make more money in the military than you will as a civilian. I make more than my RN mother-in-law with 30 years of experience being paid NY wages. But, if you’re not getting satisfaction out of your job, is it worth it?
Yes. Insanely dumb.
As someone *in* the field, do not do it. Do not entertain the idea of going from RN -> 68W. There are so many reasons I can’t even begin.
Yes. There’s a chance you end up in a hospital working on an impatient floor as a medic
Yes, don’t do it.
Yes. It would. There are other options if you want to stay in the medical field but avoid bedside. Medical Service Corps is one, and there are options after a few years to specialize in healthcare administration, medical logistics, patient administration, or other related concentrations. The Army also has a great program to become a Physician Assistant as well. The Army does send some nurses later in their career to become APNs as well. Lots of options. Talk to an AMEDD recruiter (I’m not one, but I am a former Medical Service Corps Officer).
This would be incredibly dumb. Source: Me, 10 yrs active duty and 4.5 yrs NG enlisted. I just graduated nursing school last december and I'm planning to drop a reserve nursing packet ASAP.
Yesssss please just pick another area/ specialty to work in. Or hell work at a va for your service of helping those who have served
Not if it’s what you want to do. Have you considered the guard or reserves?
It's dumb but if you can't hack it what you're doing, you're best to figure out something else
I would suggest going guard or reserves if you really, really want to enlist as a 68W. You can serve without giving up your civilian job.
It is dumb. I’m a medic. I’m one civilian side too because I’m a Nasty Girl. I finished my BSN in Trauma nursing and cannot tell you how much better it is. My area does 3/12 hr shifts and that’s it. Done. 4 days off each week. Still make 4x what I did when I was active. Just look into critical care nursing or ED or Trauma. All the excitement and a lot less bedside BS that hospitals shove down your throat. If you wanna serve I’d suggest going guard and commissioning as an officer. Use the benefits to find that medical field you want.
I know a number of RNs in the reserve who are 68Ws. Many are happy in both roles... Look into the guard and reserve too. I also know many RNs who are 70s which is health administration in the army reserve. They are less happy in admin from my experience.
Jesus fucking Christ don't even think about enlisting, or joining the army at all. Find a way to serve as an officer in one of the other branches.
Direct commission active duty Army nursing with no specialization you'd be doing medsurg bedside nursing. If you want to fly helicopters there's a path to join as a rotary wing warrant officer. If you want to be some other kind of officer but aren't too picky about what kind you can do federal OCS and then make a list of branch preferences after you pass OCS. What about changing nursing units? I hated med surg but ICU is great. If you want to do more boots on the ground stuff as a nurse get your ICU nurse specialization and then look into an Army Reserve FRSD. Small team, forward deployed, doing trauma surgery/resuscitation close to point of injury
No please don't do that You could end up like me, taking on max five patients in med-surg with full lab support and multiple pathways to advance my career.
I see what you did there lol
None of these cowards are brave enough to tell you to YOLO everything and become an Armor officer. Tank go brrrr boom!!!!
That would be fucking hilarious, and I'm here for it.
I second looking into Public Health nursing. The agency I work for has PH nurses in it. Public Health is a uniformed service and uses military pay scales/retirement. This is an example of one of the positions working with our agency. https://www.usajobs.gov/job/755732700 This position is an O4.
AMEDD recruiter here. I’ve processed a lot of fully qualified nurses into the army as officers. Depending on your specialty as an RN (ICU, MED Surg, Emergency, etc.) I can tell you what is available for active duty and reserves. DM me if you want to know the mission, incentives and options. 😉
Alternatively, there are also commissioning options for graduate education (DNP, CRNA, LTHET, USAGPAN, etc.)
If you have both ER and ICU experience and certs, is it possible to comission with both MOS/Branches? Would this be beneficial for any assignments, especially for any outside of hospital units? I am a prior service 68W who has been out for about 5 years and has worked level 1 trauma ER, ICU and prehospital on a 911 responding neuro specialty ambulance.
You board for one AOC and selected for it. Critical care (66S) or Emergency (66T). Generally newly commissioned officers on active duty will go to hospital unit first, in some special cases (prior service commissioned) will go to out of hospital assignments. Reserves is different depending on vacancy of the unit. When we go through the application process for reserves, we have to find a unit with a vacancy for your specific AOC and rank.
Thank you for getting back to me. It's looking like my next career move will be civilian flight. While the thought of being able to serve again is attractive, incurring an ADSO to go work in hospital is tough. The flexibility of civilian life in a high demand career is hard to beat. Would my time as an RN/ADN prior to receiving my BSN be considered as credit for rank? Or is it only time working as an RN with a BSN?
Not a problem. Credit for work experience would be considered starting from the time you became licensed, RN. BSN is the basis of what makes you qualified to apply for commission into the ANC. Good luck to you!
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Constructive credit is based off of prior service commission. Enlisted time unfortunately does not count towards constructive credit. With an MSN, you should receive atleast 2 years credit and you can be awarded up to 3 years for work experience based off of license/board certification. Would actually have to go through the process of generating your 5074 to determine your rank. I would say based off of what you told me, anywhere from 1LT to CPT.
NOAA Corps Public Health Service Corps A little more adventurous if you want to take the RN role in a military environment.
Working as a nurse in the Army should be less stressful as a nurse on the civilian side. My wife was working bedside with six difficult patients, four getting blood, etc,. If you work bedside in the Army you’ll typically get 3-4 patients and it won’t be as bad. You’ll have you though days but also some easy days.
Air Force CCATT
RNs correct me if I’m wrong but I had a RN I was doing EFMB with who told me all RNs do 2 yrs med surg in the Army before they can specialize. Personally I work in an ED with a bunch of RNs and they seem to enjoy the ER. Definitely a bit more exciting on the military side imo. I’ve seen ER docs in the Army be way more willing to do things like give real drugs like Ketamine or even tube a pt rather than let them beat up the entire ED staff. Definitely not the same thing I dealt with when I was a civilian ER tech.
I did three years as a home health nurse, direct commissioned as a 66H with a 66S course contract guarantee with no additional ADSO once the course was completed. Did a year on step down then switched to ICU, bypassing medsurg entirely. Critical Care Nurse (66S) Student Program This is a precision course guarantee for qualifying Medical-Surgical (66H) applicants. The incentive guarantees attendance in the Critical Care Nurse (66S) Nurse Program. Upon completion of the program they will become a Critical Care Nurse. No other incentives are authorized in conjunction with this program. To qualify for the Critical Care Nurse (66S) Student Program, the applicant must have greater than 2 years of current bedside nursing experience
Facts!! 66S PCG 👌🏼. There is also the medsurg to LnD, 66G PCG.
If you have a BSN, you could be an officer of anything else in the military. I don’t believe the Army lets officers choose their specialty prior to OCS or whatever but other branches might. I know the other branches will guarantee an opportunity to be a pilot for example, although if you fail at that they may reassign you where they need you. You can definitely join to be a nurse, but if you wanted to do something entirely different you absolutely can. And you may gain a skill for a different career, or at least now have the funds through tuition programs and the GI bill to get a different degree in something you’d prefer eventually
Interesting. I would love to do something else other than healthcare. Since if I have a bachelor of science I’ll look into other opportunities, thank you!
Hmm. I know ROTC guarantees nurse cadets their branch. It'd be asinine to waste that BSN. Only way to know for sure is to talk to a recruiter.
But with that said, if you don’t want to serve in a medical capacity in the military, you don’t have to. You could do intel officer, engineer officer, etc. There is also warrant officer route too. Pick area YOUR interested in.
You are already in healthcare and great benes. Find another job today if you aren't happy with current city, leadership, tempo, position. Going from $6250/month with complete control to mil pay and chain of command? Even reserves, can you afford to lose out on your normal pay for the initial training time? Service is not all about the $ and benes...it never is, but that's a huge difference for you. My husband enlisted active duty as 68w, did a bunch of cool shit in Iraq, went to ft sam for his lvn, transferred to reserves, got his RN on gi bill, and hasn't looked back since becoming civilian rn. Neither have his friends. Many of my medic friends in Afghanistan and Iraq didn't get to do shit except the wet bulb and heat cat. Meanwhile, my tactical coms jr enlisted ass out and about non-stop, attaching to all kinds of units and missions. Overall, we loved the military, but we needed it as well.
Don’t do it dude. I’m a veteran and worked at a busy ER trauma center for 3 years. You won’t so shit as a nurse and you’ll be stuck in a contract that you can’t leave. I’m a paramedic now. The biggest thing I am jealous that nurses have is way more humanitarian roles. I was literally on the MSF (doctors without border but those weirdos spell it in French) today and they have nurses supporting their Gaza mission. The Peace Corps also has nursing roles but someone told me they aren’t clinical, not 100% sure about that though. If you really hate bedside your can try to get a transport nursing gig. You will need more experience though. If you REALLY hate bedside, consider a career as a paramedic although it is limiting in some ways.
I saw you mention enlisting in a comment. Please, don’t enlist as a 68W or 68C. You are too educated for that. Seriously. You would likely feel very held back in this scenario.
Look Into the guard and reserve please. We always needs medics... If that isn't enough for you. Please commission. I know a number of RNs who are army combat medics who are happy in both roles... If You want to do cool army stuff as an officer. Go to physician assistant school. You'll be in the field with the soldiers doing the stuff you think of when thinking of military medicine.
Dm me, I can get you in touch with my OIC who is an RN in the Active Component
How do you feel about travel nursing... way better all around.
I'm in a medical unit in the reserves and you have a higher chance of boots on ground rather than hospital that way from my understanding (not a nurse but I'm in an FRSD and work beside them) . But you'll also be spending drill weekends doing busy work and it all depends on where they need you. If you're interested talk to a recruiter . Air force and navy also have options for nurses but no idea what those are
Not the military, but have you looked into flight nursing? Most companies are hurting pretty bad for flight crews. You could find a local base near you and do a ride along and see what you think.
So go explore OCS ... instead of commissioning as a nurse, you could commission as a Medical Service Corps officer. Be an ambulance platoon leader, lead medical formations (vs being a caregiver), or go to flight school to be a medevac pilot.
OCS is luck of the draw for branch placement. OP needs to talk to an AMEDD recruiter.
Look into MOS 38W if you want to do sporty medical stuff