I am a civilian working in an Army hospital, last job was in a civilian hospital. On the floor I work, there are a mix of young officers (O-1 to O-3) and several civilian RN's (average age 45). It's difficult (but not impossible) to obtain overseas assignments. They're fazing out civilians and relying more on military.
I have a lot of thoughts, I'm just going to put them in bullet points because there's no cohesion. Keep in mind I've only worked in one army hospital so this is one experience and would like to pre-face this with I love my job and co-workers. As far as the work ethic, I know what you're talking about it. It's like certain people move at one pace regardless of how busy it is. I will say military nurses are generally very good, but like any field, there are always bad eggs.
There is sometimes a divide between military and civilian nurses because of "fairness." Some examples: We take 1-2 on-call shifts per pay period. Civilians are paid to be on call. Military are not. If a civilian nurse is called in to work on their on call day they earn time and a half. Military earn nothing. The hospital does their best not to call in civilians because we're expensive, if a military nurse is on call, they make little to no effort as it is free labor. It causes some animosity. Granted, the loudest are the young officers. I understand their sentiment, but on the same note they joined the military on their own accord and earn benefits we do not.
On the same note, military does not earn "sick time" they earn leave at a fairly generous rate. If they are sick, they must go to the ER and be approved for quarters to get out of work. Civilians have a fairly generous sick policy. They can call in three shifts in a row without giving a reason, multiple times in a month without question. This irritates the military staff because there is a group of civilians on our floor who call out frequently and if there is a military RN/LPN on call, they end up working extra. This is a gripe that is very understandable, but there's nothing to be done about it because this is a benefit civilians are entitled to. I know when my husband gets new orders I'm going to have over 120 hours of sick time because I don't use it. They don't do pay outs for sick hours, so I have to use or lose it. It's a bad system that hurts military morale.
Working with military nurses who have never done time in the civilian world. At my first job, on day shift we could take six and flex up to seven heavy medical-surgical patients. We had one nursing assistant for 21 patients. Charge nurse took a full load. At the military hospital, nurses can take a max of four, there is a free charge nurse, and 3 aids for 19-20 patients. If I had a nickle for every time I heard one the military RN's say "we're understaffed" I'd have a lot of nickles. I currently work nights and am told, "you don't work days, you don't know how it is." I worked days in civilian hospitals and was charge with six patients- please. Again, the complaining gets old. We have nurses with barely a year of experience talking about burn out. We work in a GREAT environment. In all other civilian hospitals in the area med-surg takes 5 patients in the day time and don't have nearly as many aids.
There doesn't feel like there's the same level of accountability in the military hospital, goes for both civilian and military staff. I.E. A few weeks ago I was in an emergent situation and the night float intern gave a verbal order. After the incident I asked the intern to write for what was given. They never wrote for it. I paged them asking what the deal was, "the patient didn't need it." Well doc, we gave it. Write an order. I ended up writing a patient safety report, but doubt if anything came from it.
You'll work with a lot of interns. I work nights, the only person I can call is a medical intern. I have a lot of anxiety some nights.