Translating Military Medical Practice Into Civilian Life

While medics and corpsmen in the military do similar jobs to what nurses do in civilian practice, those skills do not translate into certification when they leave the service.

In military service, Mark C. Crider, PhD, MSN, RN, of Duquesne University, said corpsmen and medics are often trained more as first responders. So, while they come into the program with some medical experience, there is also a great amount of information for them to learn before earning their BSN degrees. Crider said because many of the veterans and reservists come into the program later than their undergraduate counterparts they have different life experience which can be an added bonus for their overall educational experience.