The "Nursing Officer" Merged Thread

[Al55]

Hi Everyone,
Just a few questions from someone interested in a NO position. I have been working as a RN for a few years and am interested in the DEO for a nursing officer. I understand the process requires the BMOQ at St. Jean but I don't know what happens after that. Is it the Basic nursing officer course? I'm curious where this is held and how long is it. Would it be possible to be posted in the east coast? After BMOQ to you go to your posting until the next phase of training is held?
Thanks. I'll be speaking with a recruiter when I'm in a position (geographically) to do so.

I copied this from above but it was a bit dated.
Basic Military Occupational Qualification?
Clinical Phase Training ?
Health Services Operations and Staff Officer Course  (Which is the common Health Services phase)?
Basic Nursing Officer Course?

 

[babycake21]

Hello,

Following BMOQ you may or may not have to do 9-12 months of clinical phase training (CPT) in hospital. This usually consists of roughly 4 months in emergency department, 4 months in intensive care/Medical and 4 months in surgical. Depending on your work experience you may be able to have your hours recognized and be able to bypass this step. I know NOs who have been able to bypass it, and others who have not. This training is done in civilian hospital, where you basically follow a staff nurses schedule. The locations that offer CPT are; Vancouver, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Ottawa, Montreal, Barrie, Fredericton; but they can sometimes find you a spot outside of these locations as it is simpler for the military to leave you where you already live, if it is possible, rather than post you for CPT and then re-post you again.

After CPT, you will go to Borden for Basic Nursing Officer Course (BNOC). Depending on when the course is offered and what time of year you finish your CPT, you may be posted prior to going to Borden, or after, depending on individual circumstances.

Yes it is possible to be posted to the east coast, however, posting locations are never guaranteed.

 

[MedCorps]

In addition...

Ideally, the Health Service Operations and Staff Officer Courser (HSOSOC) should be taken before the Basic Nursing Officer Course.  Sometimes it is done the other way around, but that is not the way it was designed.  You require both qualifications to be considered operationally functional as a Nursing Officer.

Good luck with your application. 

MC

 

[Danno]

Lots of good info in this thread, but I have questions regarding postings. My wife is in year 1 through UTPNCM and she's clearly still got some time before postings are on the radar, but what does that usually look like? Is any base across Canada with a CDU a potential posting? Are there common postings for a NO fresh out of school? I would think the likely hood of being posted to a larger base like Trenton would be greater than being posted somewhere like Shilo [shutter]. Is that correct? I've also read in older posts that NO's were being attached to civy hospitals or at least being employed in them. Has that become more common or is that something that has come and gone?

I realize that no one here is likely to have a crystal ball with the ability to look into the future for me. I'm just curious as to what could potentially come as far as postings are concerned.

Thanks,

Dan

 

[MedCorps]

Generalist Nursing Officers (aka General Duty Nursing Officers) are employed in five general locations:

1) Canadian Forces Health Services Centre (aka, the base medical clinic)
2) 1 Canadian Field Hospital High Readiness Detachment (Edmonton, Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax)
3) The Canadian Forces Health Services Training Centre (Borden)
4) Field / Flight Unit (1/2/5 Field Ambulance, 1 Canadian Field Hospital, Air Evac Flight)
5) Staff Position (Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton).

Newly graduating Nursing Officers are most often posted to #1 or #2.

1 Canadian Field Hospital High Readiness Detachments have nursing officers working primarily in civilian hospitals in order to maintain a very high level of clinical proficiency. The HRD's account for approximately 70 Lt / Capt Nursing Officers.

Trenton and Shilo would both be category #1 clinics.  The only difference is that Shilo has less CDU's then Trenton, so statistically the chances of a Shilo posting are less. 

Lets see if I can do this from memory... from West to East

21 CF Health Services Centre Comox
CF Health Services Centre (Pacific) - Victoria
1 Cdn Fd Hosp / CF Trauma Training Centre West - Vancouver
1 Fd Ambulance - Edmonton
1 Cdn Fd Hosp / High Readiness Detachment (HRD) Edmonton
1 Health Services Group Headquarters
22 CF Health Services Centre - Cold Lake
12 CF Health Services Centre - Wainwright
11 CF Health Services Centre - Shilo
23 CF Health Services Centre Winnipeg
1 Canadian Air Division Headquarters - Winnipeg
31 CF Health Services Centre Borden
CF H Svcs Training Centre - Borden
Military Personnel Generation Training Group - Borden
32 CF Health Services Centre - Toronto
24 CF Health Services Centre - Trenton
CF Air Evacuation Flight - Trenton
1 Cdn Air Division - TRSET - Trenton
426 Transport Training Squadron, RCAF - Trenton
33 CF Health Services Centre - Kingston 
Canadian Forces Health Services Centre Ottawa
CANSOFCOM HQ - Ottawa
1 Cdn Fd Hosp / HRD Ottawa
CF H Svcs Group Headquarters - Ottawa
2 Field Ambulance - Petawawa
1 Canadian Field Hospital - Petawawa
25 CF Health Services Centre - Bagotville
41 CF Health Services Centre - St Jean
5 Field Ambulance - Valcartier
4 Health Services Group Headquarters - Montreal
1 Cdn Fd Hosp / HRD Montreal
1 Cdn Fd Hosp / CF Trauma Training Centre (East) - Montreal 
42 CF Health Services Centre - Gagetown
26 CF Health Services Centre - Greenwood
CF Health Services Centre (Atlantic) - Halifax
1 Cdn Fd Hosp / HRD Halifax
Canadian Forces Health Services Group Detachment Geilenkirchen Germany

Might not be 100% but I think these are most of the locations where Regular Force NO's are posted.

MC

 

[Danno]

Wow.... Thank you very much, MedCorps! That's WAY more info than I was expecting and I'm very grateful for it. My wife is excited about how they run the HRD and wants to go there (and eventually Germany), but we'll see what happens when the time comes. For now, she studies..... Thanks again!

 

[MedCorps]

Not a problem.

The HRD concept is unique.  It is about 40/50/10 General Duty Nursing Officers (GDNO) and Critical Care Nursing Officers and Perioperative Nursing Officers.

Generally postings are three years and you ideally should only do one or two tours in your career as a NO in an HRD.

For a GDNO they are expected to maintain a high level of clinical readiness in the following areas:

Medical / Surgical Ward Nursing
Emergency Nursing
Pediatrics
Obstetrics

These are done though embedding in large civilian hospitals and doing rotations through the various specialties. If the core competencies are completed and they are deems at "high clinical readiness" GDNO's have done other rotations to gain experience in areas such as ENT, ophthalmology, dermatology, cardiology, hematology, respiratory medicine, endocrinology, neurology, neurosurgery, urology, STD clinic, dental clinic, podiatry, veterinary clinic - dogs, clinical nutrition, toxicology, anesthesia, burns, laboratory, infectious diseases, infectious control, ICU and vascular surgery.   

They are also expected to maintain currency is a number of medical courses (trauma nursing, advanced military trauma resuscitation, advanced cardiac life support, etc) as well as soldier skills (Level 2/3 individual battle task standards, such as shooting, radios, navigation, etc). Finally they are expected to be able to be rapidly deployed by maintaining there medical, psycho-social, fitness and administrative readiness. 

These NO's are the ones who often fill the high readiness tasks such as DART, Major Air Disaster, etc.

The one complaint from some of these nurses is that they feel they are always tasked during their 3 year posting to an HRD. It seems when they are not in civilian hospital doing maintenance of clinical readiness training they are "away" on course, training, teaching, exercise or deployment. Some as much as 230 days a year I am told. When I hear them complain, I just ask... "what the hell do you think happens in a HIGH READINESS detachment?"

I hope that the schooling goes well and feel free to ask any other questions.  Good crowd here on Army.ca with lots of knowledge. 

Cheers,

MC 

 

[RubberTree]

Might not be 100% but I think these are most of the locations where Regular Force NO's are posted.

MC

There is also an exchange position for a flight nurse with the USAF in Illinois, USA.
RT

 

[Danny78]

Hey, I'm currently in the ROTP program with 2 years left to graduate and just wondering in addition to Ottawa, Edmonton, Halifax, and montreal, are there any other high readiness units?  Any advice on how to persuade superiors to consider one for these units?

 

[MedCorps]

Nope those are all the 1 Canadian Field Hospital // High Readiness Detachments. There are other high readiness opportunities, but not for a Lt Nursing Officer.

It is hard to persuade anyone of anything when you care coming out of ROTP on obligatory service. Best you can do is state your preference(s) for posting and hope that your desires meet the needs of the service.

MC

 

[Danny78]

Thanks! Does anyone have a rough idea of what a year in a high readiness unit would be like? Eg: 2 months in a civy hospital, then away 2 months training, back to the hospital 3 months etc?

I'm mostly interested in acute care/trauma nursing so I'm trying to figure out what is the best route for me to pursue.

 

[MedCorps]

I think the schedule varies person-to-person and is somewhat MOSID dependent. I have heard a number of the General Duty Nursing Officers / Critical Care Nursing Officers who work in the High Readiness Detachments (HRD) note that they spend 200 days a year away from home on tasking / deployment / training and the rest doing clinical maintenance of skills in the civilian hospital on the various services while on-call for a number of contingency plans. I have heard at least one comment they spend so much time away from home a year (250+ days) that it is hard to keep up the required high readiness clinical skills set as they are always away and do not have enough time for civilian hospital rotations. The tasking / training balance something that is being looked at right now by the incoming Officer Commanding HRDs.

I am not sure that my answer helps, but might give you a little context. When it was designed, the plan was only to have the NO do a max 3-4 year line posting in the High Readiness Detachment once (or maybe twice for the non-succession planned) in their career due to the tempo and to give others a chance to be in the slot. I tell NO's who are interested that they need to be prepared for high tempo, living by the pager and immersed in civilian clinical training when not otherwise tasked. I also tell them to enjoy the "tempo rush" and maximize the experience as it will not last forever. It bothers me when I hear Jr NO's complain about the tempo when they do not realize it is short lived and they may look back on it as one of the best experience of their career.

MC

 

[Danny78]

That is a great help, I'm wondering what kind of taskings if you could provide examples? A high tempo sounds like a fantastic experience!

Thanks

 

[MedCorps]

Taskings would include such things as exercises (domestic / international), teaching as course staff (Borden, Montreal, Vancouver), civilian lecturing, qualification standard / training plan / courseware writing boards, selection boards, Cadet Camp medical coverage, Technical Assistance Visits on operations, working groups, temporary duty to 1 Cdn Fd Hosp in Petawawa for equipment checks / familiarization / briefings / packing, etc, etc.

MC

 

[Danny78]

Thanks! Much appreciated.

 

[Ocean33]

Hello all,

If I am selected for Nursing Officer I will need to do some CPT
A previous poster mentioned the cities where this takes place, but exceptions may be made.
I have a young child and partner in Toronto; have there been any CPT positions here?

Thank you

 

[babycake21]

There are some exceptions. The list of cities where CPT is offered is not exhaustive. There are other cities where CPT can be done. However, there are also some cities on the list which currently have no openings for CPT.

Myself and 4 other nurses have recently been posted solely for CPT purposes. Myself with a family. Be prepared to move your family if need be, and then to potentially move them again following CPT.

 

[Ocean33]

Thank you babycake

Guess I will hold off breaking down my moving boxes.
My little man loves travelling and meeting new people so thats a big plus

 

[dstevens]

Hello. I was interested in more of the Critical Care Nursing Officer business.

I've been working in a level 3 med surg ICU now going on 3 years. I would assume this would count as sufficient experience. Could I vaguely ask what constitutes "critical care" for the military. I would have to assume mostly surgical issues -- trauma, blast injuries, penetrating injuries. I'm used to, pressors the odd proned pt, sometimes paralyzed,almost entirely intubated and sedated.

 

[MedCorps]

Could I vaguely ask what constitutes "critical care" for the military.

Critical care nursing officers work in three main clinical areas, mostly in the field hospital establishment.

1) Critical care ward.  This is where the sickest patients in the field hospital are. Everything from children to geriatric with the main population being previously health adult males. Everything from trauma (multiple amputations/ burns) to organophosphate poisoning. Including some cardiac and neuro for good measure. Full range of therapeutic modalities.  Ventilation (without an RT), central lines, pressors, blood, chest tubes, iStat monitoring, ABG draws, arterial pressure monitoring, etc. You will not see much cardiac pacing and epidural / intrathecal. No intra-aortic balloon pumps or swan ganz, and minimal but some intracranial pressure monitoring.

2) Recovery.  CCNO's recovery of patients post surgery before going to the Critical Care Ward / Intermediate Care Ward.

3) Resuscitation.  Essentially the urgent / emergency care reception side of the field hospital. They share this competency area with General Duty Nursing Officers. You treat everything that comes in the door.

You will also see CCNO's working as critical care flight nurses for strategic (fixed wing) critical care and infectious patient aeromedical evacuation. This requires additional specialty training.