I'm so excited!

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Jul 16, 2008

this is just like any job interview. dress in business casual. ask how soon they will make a decision about who they will hire and when you can expect to hear from them. i was interviewed in october and the decision to hire wasn't made until december which was 3 months later. have them explain the salary to you and how it works--it's a little different from the way it works in the public sector. also ask about the probationary period. when the end of the interview gets to benefits, asks what they are. ask what they specifically offer rns, not just employees. do not be surprised to hear that many of their staff are former military and many of the managers former officers.

be prepared for the red tape. it goes on forever and just when you think its been completed they stick another form in your face. things move slowly because it is the government. our department had to go through the fbi investigation twice because they told us they never got the results of the first one. don't know about this facility, but we were all expected to be involved in community va service programs and it was addressed on our yearly evaluations. my facility was the host of the wheelchair games one year and just about everyone had some task they were doing in connection with it. this was all in addition to our work hours. also, we had to sign exclusivity contracts and could not work secondary jobs with other hospital employers to make extra money. the va was funny about that. having been someone who was working at the time the budget crisis came about and there was a fear our paychecks were going to be held up, i strongly recommend that you put money in a savings account in case that ever happens again. i worked on a iv team and as fast as the iv teams were funded by congress, their funding was taken away which is why i ended up leaving. one disadvantage of working for one employer is that you aren't exposed to new ways and ideas of doing things like you would be if you moved from facility to facility every couple of years and you tend to get stagnant and develop a parochial point of view. makes you likely to be a very easy employee for the bosses to manipulate.