• Former Navy nurses are welcomed on hospital staffs everywhere.Hospital image by Raulmah?3n from Fotolia.com
  
  Nurses did not wait for the Navy to formally establish the Navy Nurse Corps in 1938 before they served on ships and in hospitals. Their tradition stretches back almost 100 years prior to that.
  
  As commissioned officers, the Nurse Corps is part of the greater Navy Medical Corps. Serving around the world, Navy nurses have responsibilities that often are far greater than their civilian counterparts. Professional duties are only a part of the job; they also are required to be superb managers of junior and enlisted personnel, and to be qualified for warfare duties.
  
  

Clinical Duty

• Navy nurses may serve clinical duty at Navy medical and dental treatment facilities in the United States or overseas. This may mean a small clinic with only a few medical personnel, or a Naval hospital such as Bethesda in Maryland, which has thousands of attached medical staff. An overseas posting might even mean working with other service branches in an Army or Air Force medical facility.
  
  

Logistical Planning

• Because the Marine Corps also uses the Navy medical corps, nurses are involved in the projected logistical and medical needs planning of landing forces under combat conditions. These projections are critical because too few medical supplies and staff will result in needless deaths, and too many will take away from necessary needs elsewhere.
  
  

Combat Nursing

• During times of conflict, there is great need for combat casualty care, and Navy nurses have always served just behind the front lines. Combat nurses can see far more extensive trauma and major injuries in a month than many nurses see in a career. These nurses are often called upon to perform duties that are normally the province of surgeons and specialists.
  
  

CBR Specialist

• Navy nurses may serve as the primary response to chemical, biological and radiological (CBR) attacks. This requires specialized training in prevention, decontamination and treatment for three quite different areas.
  
  

Many Opportunities

• In addition to the already mentioned duties, the Navy states that "Navy Nurses can focus on any of more than a dozen sought-after practice areas, including: critical care, education, emergency trauma, manpower system analysis, maternal/infant, medical/surgical, neonatal intensive care, nurse anesthetist, nurse midwife, nurse practitioner family, pediatric, psychiatric, women's health, family, pediatric, psychiatric, women's health, pediatrics, perioperative, psychiatric, public health, and research, training."