Nursing Opportunities

If nursing is your professional goal, there is no better place to begin your career than in Army ROTC. Army ROTC offers you the unique opportunity to gain practical experience while receiving financial assistance for college.

Army ROTC provides an opportunity for college nursing students to receive hands-on leadership experience. Military Science courses provide a chance for students to develop management, communications and decision-making skills in a non-threatening environment.

Physical training and confidence-building activities also provide a chance for students to be physically and mentally challenged. As an ROTC nursing student, you will be able to combine college electives in military science and an invaluable nurse summer training experience with your regular nursing program.

You will develop your professional skills while you learn some meaningful things about yourself and what you can accomplish.

Either prior to or following Advanced Camp at Fort Lewis, Wash., nurse cadets may elect to attend the Nurse Summer Training Program (NSTP) clinical elective. This program provides nursing students an opportunity to further develop and practice leadership and clinical skills between their junior and senior year of nursing.

The three-week program is strictly voluntary, although highly recommended. Nursing cadets will work at various Army hospitals throughout the country and overseas.

Students will be assigned an Army Nurse Corps officer as their preceptor/instructor to guide them through the nursing process for three weeks. Students learn valuable management and leadership skills and apply them in a health care environment.

Room and board are provided and the students receive a stipend during this period. Cadets receive an Officer Evaluation Report upon completion. Students may receive academic credit for Nursing Management or Clinical Care for NSTP. 

In order to complete the Army Nurse Corps requirements, you must:

• Attend a university/college with an accredited Bachelor of Science Nursing program
• Enroll in Army ROTC classes and complete all requirements
• Maintain a GPA of 2.0 or better on a 4.0 scale
• Receive a BSN and pass the national board examination (NCLEX)

After graduation you will be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army Nurse Corps. You will attend the Army Medical Department Officer Basic Course at Fort Sam Houston, Texas en route to your first clinical assignment as an Army nurse.

The active duty commitment is four years; you then will have an option to exit active duty, while completing the remainder of your eight year commitment in either the active or inactive reserves. After just one year at your initial assignment, you may have the opportunity to attend a clinical specialty course in one of the following areas:

Critical Care Nursing 
This 16-week course prepares nurses to take care of critically ill patients in a variety of critical care settings. Course content includes the necessary knowledge and clinical skills, teaching techniques and the principles of management of the critical care setting.

Emergency Nursing Course 
This 16-week course prepares nurses to function as entry-level emergency nurses. The course will focus on responsibilities, nursing care, teaching role, principles and techniques of staff supervision and management of patients across the life span in an emergency setting.

Portions of this course are jointly instructed with the Critical Care Nursing Course.

Pre-operative Nursing 
This 16-week course will prepare you to function as first-level staff nurses in the operating room (OR). It also focuses on the OR nurse’s responsibilities in the preparation and sterilization of supplies/equipment; special fields of surgery; and the principles and techniques of management of the operating room.

Obstetrical and Gynecological Nursing 
This 16-week course is designed to provide the necessary knowledge and clinical skills to deliver inpatient and ambulatory nursing care to pregnant women, newborn infants and patients with gynecological problems.

Psychiatric/Mental Health Nursing 
This 22-week course will prepare you with the necessary knowledge and clinical skills to deliver care and treatment to psychiatric patients.

Community Health Nursing 
The 9-week Principles of Military Preventive Medicine course is designed to provide the entry level skills and knowledge in preventive medicine specialty areas. Content includes community health practices, communicable and infectious diseases, epidemiology, statistics, medical entomology, industrial hygiene, health physics, sanitary engineering and environmental science as well as various specialty modules.

In addition to the specialty courses listed above, Army Nurse Corps officers who are in a “career status” can apply for a graduate education program of their choice. Some of the more popular selections include Anesthesia Nursing, the Family Nurse Practitioner and Health Care or Nursing Administration.