I’ve been looking through the nursing and the medical support officer, do you know what the difference is? Thanks

Hi Pippa,

The big difference is a nurse is clinical, a medical support officer is not. Nurses can treat patients and will have completed a degree in nursing, medical support officers have no more medical training than the basic first aid taught to all British Army personnel and are not required to have a clinical background.

Arguably, later in their careers you will get some overlap. Nurses do take on non-clinical roles in the military, and these roles may also be filled by medical support officers - for example the officer commanding a squadron in a medical regiment could be a nurse or a medical support officer.

Some nurses will choose to take on purely managerial roles later in their careers, and will follow similar career paths to medical support officers, but some will chop and change between managerial roles and clinical roles.

Nurses can also join as either a soldier or an officer, whereas medical support officers are always officers.

I hope that helps answer your question, let me know if you are still unsure.

Can you explain the difference between a Nurse Solider and a Nurse Officer? Please.

Hello,

I am not a nurse myself, and currently we do not have any nurses on this platform, so while I will do my best to answer your question, I would advise speaking to the recruiting team in more detail about this when you apply.

As far as I know, the main difference is the level of responsibility, particularly at the start of your career, and also the path your career follows. Nursing officers may be assigned to either clinical jobs or managerial jobs fairly early in their career. In their managerial jobs they will fill a role similar to that of a Military Support Officer (MSO). The clinical roles they take on are likely to have more of a managerial aspect, for instance a role as a matron/sister. While nursing soldiers may also go on to do managerial roles, this will usually be later on in their career and will be different to the roles filled by nursing officers. At the start of their career they will be predominantly clinical.

For example, at a medical regiment, a nursing officer may be a troop commander (a role also done by MSOs), they will look after a troop of soldiers, this will include nurses (that are soldiers), combat medical technicians, paramedics etc..

Are you able to directly apply as a Qualified Paramedic or would you have to complete all CMT training?

I have definitely met paramedics who have applied as a qualified paramedic, I know it's not really something that is listed on the Army website, and the paramedic role is a relatively new one. I would recommend starting your application and talking it through with the recruitment team, you will need to do Phase 1 training, but I am not sure what Phase 2 training is for paramedics. Starting the application won't tie you in to anything, it just makes it easier to get helpful information.
Alternatively there are a few other ways you can contact the recruitment team, details can be found here https://apply.army.mod.uk/get-in-touch

I believe you have to go through the CMT pathway. I have not seen any Qualified Paramedics join the Army through Phase 1. Please contact the AMS recruitment page for more information as they will be able to give you a more definite answer.