[sharkbait]

Hi everybody, I recently passed my boards and am now looking for a job, woo-hoo! anyways, I applied at a Federal Medical Center (FMC) about 50 miles away from me and was wondering if anybody can help me out with the differences between state and federal correctional institutes? Or even how a FMC differs from a FCI as far as nursing goes? Pay? Benefits? Really any information at all would be helpful, and firsthand experience would be a bonus.
Thanks

[BSNinTX]

I work federal. I work at an FCI, and another nurse here came to us from an FMC. An FMC is not really a medical center, i.e., it is not like a hospital. The patients tend to be long term subacute/nursing home and/or chronically ill needing frequent outpatient care. At an FCI, it is much like an office setting mixed with an urgent care clinic. You will do a lot of triage, assist the mid-level and physician staff (vitals, treatments, etc.), respond to " emergencies" which often turn out not to be, take care of "booboos" and "ochies."

I have no experience in state, but they seem to run in a similar manner. As far as pay and benefits go, you'll have to compare locally, as some states pay well and others do not.

www.opm.gov has the federal payscales and benefits - check the paytable that says "Law enforcement" as that is what we are payed under. You will contribute 1.3% of your base salary to a defined benefit pension with the feds, and recieve 1.7% of your highest salary X the number of years of service. This multiple is true for the first 20 years, then a 1% multiple goes into effect. We have a 23 year retirement, or age 57, whichever comes first.

Originally Posted by sharkbait

Hi everybody, I recently passed my boards and am now looking for a job, woo-hoo! anyways, I applied at a Federal Medical Center (FMC) about 50 miles away from me and was wondering if anybody can help me out with the differences between state and federal correctional institutes? Or even how a FMC differs from a FCI as far as nursing goes? Pay? Benefits? Really any information at all would be helpful, and firsthand experience would be a bonus.
Thanks

[Sheri257]

Originally Posted by BSNinTX

www.opm.gov has the federal payscales and benefits - check the paytable that says "Law enforcement" as that is what we are payed under. You will contribute 1.3% of your base salary to a defined benefit pension with the feds, and recieve 1.7% of your highest salary X the number of years of service. This multiple is true for the first 20 years, then a 1% multiple goes into effect. We have a 23 year retirement, or age 57, whichever comes first.

Funny that you mention this. I was just looking at jobs with the federal Bureau of Prisons in my area where they had this link to the federal employee retirement system.

http://www.opm.gov/forms/pdfimage/RI90-1.pdf

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong but it looked to me like you only get 1 percent a year retirement benefit that went up to 1.1 percent after 20 years (p. 11).

I read that Congress at one point had reduced retirement benefits for new hires so, could that account for the difference?

In my state, you pay up to 6 percent towards retirement depending on how much you make, and the benefit is 2.5 percent per year, but you don't pay for or receive social security benefits.

[BSNinTX]

Well, you are right...and wrong. If you refer to page 17 of the document you linked to, you will see that law enforcement officers are covered under a special program that pays 1.7%. Correctional staff are covered under this program.

What state are you in? This sounds similar to the Texas state retirement, as well as Texas county retirement programs.

Originally Posted by lizz

Funny that you mention this. I was just looking at jobs with the federal Bureau of Prisons in my area where they had this link to the federal employee retirement system.

http://www.opm.gov/forms/pdfimage/RI90-1.pdf

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong but it looked to me like you only get 1 percent a year retirement benefit that went up to 1.1 percent after 20 years (p. 11).

I read that Congress at one point had reduced retirement benefits for new hires so, could that account for the difference?

In my state, you pay up to 6 percent towards retirement depending on how much you make, and the benefit is 2.5 percent per year, but you don't pay for or receive social security benefits.

[Sheri257]

Originally Posted by BSNinTX

Well, you are right...and wrong. If you refer to page 17 of the document you linked to, you will see that law enforcement officers are covered under a special program that pays 1.7%. Correctional staff are covered under this program.

What state are you in? This sounds similar to the Texas state retirement, as well as Texas county retirement programs.

Oh ... I see ... it's on page 20. I didn't realize that RN's got the same federal benefits as law enforcement. I'm in California and here, state law enforcement and corrections officers get different benefits ... 3 percent per year. Corrections RN's are considered "safety" employees so they get 2.5 percent per year. The benefits are also capped at 80 percent for RN's, 90 percent for law enforcement.

However, RN's make more than law enforcement so they can pretty much collect the same pension with the same amount of time put in, even with the lower cap and percentage. I guess it more or less evens out ... so to speak ... in the end.

[BSNinTX]

In the federal system, nurses are covered as LEO's (law enforcement officers). That may change in the future, there is some discussion.

The main reason we get this is because we are LEO's. We qualify with firearms and self-defense. We work correctional posts in emergencies. We work correctional posts to cover for the custody staff during annual refresher training and during quarterly CO meetings. So, we get paid and get benefits as they do. The federal prison system's motto is, "Correctional Worker First."

Originally Posted by lizz

Oh ... I see ... it's on page 20. I didn't realize that RN's got the same federal benefits as law enforcement. I'm in California and here, state law enforcement and corrections officers get different benefits ... 3 percent per year. Corrections RN's are considered "safety" employees so they get 2.5 percent per year. The benefits are also capped at 80 percent for RN's, 90 percent for law enforcement.

However, RN's make more than law enforcement so they can pretty much collect the same pension with the same amount of time put in, even with the lower cap and percentage. I guess it more or less evens out ... so to speak ... in the end.

[Sheri257]

Originally Posted by BSNinTX

In the federal system, nurses are covered as LEO's (law enforcement officers).

In California, the LVN's are considered officers also but the RN's aren't.