The military provides nurses, established or prospective, with near irresistible incentives to join up. Why become a military nurse and in what branch of the armed forces?
Four branches of the military recruit nurses or prospective nurses and maintain large nursing corps:
Both attack recruitment from all angles:
The advantage in military nursing is the huge financial incentives offered in the form of sign-on cash bonuses, student loan repayment, and earned stipends.
The Army Nurse Corps recruits nurses into Officer status either as Active or Reserve Duty personnel. At either level of enlistment you are potentially qualified for amazing sign-on bonuses and/or equally impressive student loan repayment. Hot specialties include Nurse Anesthetists, Perioperative, Psychiatric, and Critical Care RNs.
Army nurses serve in a wide range of patient care facilities and administrative capacities. Many also choose to pursue advanced areas of specialization and advanced degrees while they serve.
The Army National Guard, closely associated with the Army, also recruits nurses. If you’re earned an Associates degree in nursing you may be eligible for 3-annual $5,000 bonuses; Bachelors of Science in Nursing degree may earn you 3-annual $10,000 bonuses. Nurse Practitioners may earn $20,000 per year in bonuses.
The Navy offers equally attractive incentives to practicing or prospective RNs, including sign-on bonuses, advanced educational opportunities, and fantastic nursing student loan repayment options.
The Air Force maintains corps of various healthcare specialists, including nurses. Career specialties range from Med-Surg Nursing to Anesthesia. Like the Army and Navy, the Air Force also provides attractive incentive to join the Nursing corps. Working RNs and student nurses benefit most from scholarships and student loan repayment plans.
Considering the reach and involvement of the U.S. military both nationally and internationally it stands to reason that active duty nursing personnel could be placed in a wide variety of unique work environments around the world. You could be working in a field hospital, in a military hospital overseas, on a vessel, providing help to communities in need around the world. Reservists most likely work certain times during the year in military hospitals and clinics stateside.