Do I have to wait 5 years before I can apply to crna school?

Yes Sir. I am active duty and commissioned as a critical care nurse with the hopes of applying in 1-2 years. I was told this was possible per my recruiter. Now that I am 10 days from BOLC being finished, today’s lesson included information that said you can only go back to school ( dnp, crna) and tack on time to your duty only after you have been a commissioned officer for 5 years. Which is rather confusing, considering my contract is a 3 year obligation....

1LT (Join to see) - The most recent Long-Term Health Education and Training (LTHET) message for AN officers should outline the requirements for application. Are you able to access that through the HRC website? It changes from year to year, but that should give you a good idea of any time-in-service requirements for applying. If you can't access it, let me know and I'll see if one of my former students can track it down.

LTC Kevin B. thank you Sir, I can access this now, I just never knew before I signed on :( Just wish I knew is all. I would have gone about it a different way.

1LT (Join to see) - Does the message state that it requires five years of time in service in order to apply?

MAJ Byron Oyler that's why I try to get my foot in first before applying directly to Baylor. However I heard the opposite from other military nurse, as currently with the exception of BAMC, other facility do not have as high acuity as bamc. Nurses not station in BAMC do not have much exposure compared to civilian hospital at trauma center. I working in a cvicu at a level one trauma center.

(Join to see) - That is not accurate as several ICUs have as high or higher acuity. Working in CVICU, you should know that high acuity does not always come from trauma, and the largest ICU at BAMC is medical. I find traumas much easier than critical care medical cases as you know what caused the problem, fix it. A lot of nurses get into the same situation as you in believing a level one is the place to be to get action. Not really, I have seen just as much or more in a free standing ER and the free standing ERs do not have ICU nurses to help, they dont have respiratory to help, and sometimes you are lucky to have another RN. I saw some real stuff in Hawaii and in Germany that made BAMC an easy transition for me.

MAJ Byron Oyler thank you for your input. I realized it's different in different branch too as I talked to air force nurse at my job. They were C-Star nurses and come to my hospital for exposure to critical cases. Yes you are totally right. Thankfully I have exposure to other ICU which from one day I take care a fresh open heart to sick cardiac arrest patients on 10+ drips on CRRT etc.

MAJ Byron Oyler and hopefully I will have the same experience if I get assigned to BAMC. I applied for BAMC as my first choice for duty station. Follow by tripler and Madigan.