Nurse Corps Officer MOS List
Your role as an Army Nurse Corps Officer will afford you the chance to care for your patients in a variety of settings. Army Nurses have autonomy to practice nursing in a way that is unmatched by civilian health care facilities. Your professional judgment will be the driving force behind leading your nursing team to provide full spectrum patient care. You'll identify and organize multi-disciplinary resources for patients and their families to help them with inpatient, outpatient and home care. You'll be able to understand the special concerns and needs of your Soldier patients because you're also a Soldier, which allows you to better serve them. Identifying with your fellow Soldiers is essential to providing effective health care.
A Nurse Corps Officer can specialize into the following areas:
66B—Army Public Health Nurse
66C—Psychiatric / Mental Health Nurse
66E—Perioperative Nurse
66F—Nurse Anesthetist
66G—Obstetrics and Gynecologist
66H—Medical-Surgical Nurse
66N—Generalist Nurse
66P—Family Nurse Practitioner
The responsibilities of a Nurse Corps Lieutenant may include:
- Command and control one shift on a nursing unit that is part of a Field Hospital or installation Medical Activity (MEDDAC). At large Medical Centers (MEDCEN) you may be a team leader on a large nursing unit.
- Coordinate and supervise all nursing care during your shift to provide care for patients at all levels of command, from company to division level and beyond, in U.S. and multi-national operations.
Requirements to be a Nurse
Active Duty and Army Reserve must have a bachelor's degree in nursing (BSN) from an accredited school.
Training
As an Army Medical Department (AMEDD) Officer, you won't participate in the Basic Training that enlisted Soldiers go through. Instead, you'll attend an Officer Basic Leader Course (OBLC), a basic orientation course to the Army Health Care System and the Army way-of-life. Although, you must also meet height and weight standards and pass the same Army Physical Fitness Test that enlisted soldiers take in Basic Training.
Officer Basic Leader Course for Active Duty Officers is held four times a year at the AMEDD Center in Fort Sam Houston, Texas and lasts from 10 to 14 weeks. Officers in the Army Reserve go to OBLC for 2 weeks.
After completing OBLC, Active Duty Officers will report to their initial Active Duty assignment. Reserve and National Guard Officers will return to their home station.
Helpful Skills
Being a leader in the Army requires certain qualities. A leader exhibits self-discipline, initiative, confidence and intelligence. They are physically fit and can perform under physical and mental pressures. Leaders make decisions quickly, always focusing on completing the mission successfully, and show respect for their subordinates and other military officers. Leaders lead from the front and adjust to environments that are always changing. They are judged by their ability to make decisions on their own and bear ultimate moral responsibility for those decisions.
Advanced Responsibilities of a Nurse
Nurse Officers may continue to specialize and serve in the Nurse Corps at ever increasing levels of leadership and responsibility. Nurse Corps Officers at the executive level can also become managers of hospitals. Responsibilities of a Nurse Corps Captain may include:
- Commanding and controlling one medium size nursing unit that is part of a Field Hospital or installation Medical Activity (MEDDAC). At large Medical Centers (MEDCEN) you may be a shift leader on a large nursing unit.
- Coordinate employment of all nursing assets on their nursing unit to provide care for patients at all levels of command, from company to division level and beyond, in U.S. and multi-national operations.
- Provide feedback that facilitates changing doctrine and equipment for unique Nurse and health care missions.
- Serve as a mentor to new graduate nurses.
- Instruct medical-surgical nursing skills at medical training centers.
- Serve as nursing or health care advisor to other units, including Army National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve organizations.
Related Civilian Jobs
Being an Officer in the Army Nurse Corps, you will have the same qualifications to be a nurse in the civilian world.
Article Last Modified: February 27, 2011
Return to: Army Jobs / MOS List