Can someone compare San Diego, Bethesda and Port Smith Navy Hospitals for me?

you Forgot Tripler AMC.. PLENTY of Naval personnel stationed there. Ultimately, you will have little choice over where you go. I will say I am getting terrific long term care at Bethesda and I got great emergency medical care when I broke my knee on DH's ship at Balboa I have nothing good to say about Portsmouth. but you also can be stationed at Marine bases as well as overseas.

I haven't served at either of those hospitals (I'm in the Army Nurse Corps as a Critical Care Nurse). When I was deployed overseas for OIF, I recall that many critically injured were flown to Bethesda. The usual route is for them to go from point of injury (i.e Iraq or Afghanistan, for example) to Germany for further stabalization, then to one of the military hospitals in the US. Bethesda, Walter Reed and Brooke Army Medical Centers got the most patients from us. Seeing that you want to be a CRNA, I can say that you will get some valuable critical care experience at Bethesda. I don't know anything about Port Smith. Good luck to you.

I've never been to the Bethesda one so I don't know. As far as the hospitals in Portsmouth and San Diego, they're pretty much the same. They're big and you always have plenty to do, plenty of patients. I guess the only opinion I can give about either/or are the area's they're located in. I'm not afraid to say it: I absolutely hated Portsmouth and the Virginia Area. To me, there was dirtiness and filth everywhere(physically dirty and crime rate wise), rude people, and stupid people. San Diego was the complete opposite in all these areas, plus there was an In and Out Burger. So, if you want advice based solely on the coastal locations, I'd say west coast all the way.