Working at VA

[OUxPhys, BSN, RN]

HI all. Ive been interested in working at the VA in my city. I don't want to work the floors but I was thinking about OR, cath/EP lab etc. I feel like the floors are bad but the non-floor areas aren't as bad. Is this true with a lot of the VAs?

Just curious. Any feedback would be appreciated!

[OUxPhys, BSN, RN]

Anyone?

[LouBean]

There is a saying in the VA -- if you've been to one VA, you've been to one VA. In other words, it depends entirely on the hospital in question. I work on a med/surg/tele unit and love it. We have a great team. The ICU is the plum job at our hospital, with the bulk of the nurses there having 20+ years seniority. The cath lab and PACU seem to be well-loved by the employees, while our MPU has a pretty high turnover. The most common complaint from former coworkers who have gone from floor nursing to other departments is the drop in pay. Not only is the base pay lower, but you miss out on the night/weekend differential. On the other hand, many of those positions are M-F, 730-1600, and I can certainly see the appeal of that.

[OUxPhys, BSN, RN]

This is also true. DO you know if intermittent is the same as PRN? I applied for an "intermittent" position on a PCU (I currently work on a cardiac step-down at a well known hospital) at my local VA hospital. It said the schedule was evenings from 330-12AM.....thats it.

[LouBean]

I don't know much about how PRN shifts work other places, but we have a couple intermittent RNs. They don't have a set tour, although actually one of them does do nights only. Now that our unit is fully staffed, they usually only get scheduled one or maaaaybe two shifts every month. No idea if that information helps you!

[OUxPhys, BSN, RN]

It does! It sounds like PRN. Some people work full time and just don't get the benefits at my current place. The job closes today so Im guessing I should hopefully hear something back in a few weeks (Then again this is the government).