I interviewed today and was offered one of six resident positions. I lost it. The panel laughed and said my reaction was the best one so far. ?
I was asked nine questions. They were along the lines of "Tell me about yourself; How will you contribute to VA care; Flexibility and describe a time when it was required; Career goals; Rate yourself 0 - 10 in the following aspects, etc.". I was sweating the whole time, but displayed a cool (I think) exterior.
It starts towards the end of September, so plenty of time for me to go over all my material from school and beef up my knowledge so I don't look like a total dunce.
I will periodically update this thread with all my trials and tribulations for those who are interested in applying for a spot in the future and want to know what the year will look like.
Ugh. I hope you hear from someone soon. So frustrating.
I hope you hear soon as well. What a mess!
On 9/30/2022 at 7:06 PM, Freckledkorican said:
That is an excellent idea! I emailed the administrators your suggestion.
They replied it will be considered in the near future. I hope so because it will be a good place for all of us to talk to each other about different residencies and our experiences.
Almost finished with my fourth week of residency. The first week was a mess because of Hurricane Ian. Barely got anything done. The second week was dedicated to CPRS training. Yawn. The third week I spent with my awesome preceptor. It was a mixture of clinic and some afternoon virtual trainings. I shadowed her the first day. On the second day, I took over explaining lab results to patients as well as focused assessments. On this fourth week, I added spending time educating patients. By the way, the clinic hours are four 10s, which is cool. Although, I am not completely off on Fridays because I have didactics in the afternoons.
My preceptor was out today, so I spent the day with one of the docs. I loved it! He gave me a little more free rein with patients and I am glad I have been studying during my free time because he asked me questions throughout the day. In front of patients. I handled it like a pro. Next week, I think my preceptor will let me take more responsibility during the patient visits and I will start charting notes and such. I haven’t been able to do it because I didn’t have a work laptop, but I will finally receive one tomorrow.
I hope everyone is doing well in their residencies!
Not sure if you'll know the answer to this one, but here it goes: Let's say you get hired as a FNP in one place at the VA for $60K/yr. After one year (or whatever the min. time is) decide to transfer to another place, where the next pay grade/scale is actually lower at $50K/yr. Do they actually cut your salary to meet the local pay? Or are you able to stay at what you were paid originally at the first place?
That is awesome! Still nothing from Orlando. Finally got a hold of someone in HR. They now claim all I have is to finish my background check. I got an offer from another company and will probably take it. I cant keep waiting on the VA and I have not been working.
I get it. Almost six(?) weeks later and they are still a mess. Incompetent. I am sorry it was a waste of time for you and the others who accepted the residency. I wish you good luck at your new job?
How do they assign your group to the various clinics? Is it usually just one of you in whichever speciality clinic they assign you to? Or do they place two of you in the same clinic? Just wondering if the VA prefers to have two newbies together with one preceptor or is it truly one-on-one?
Also, we all know after school ends/ended, we all come out at various levels of understanding, knowledge, etc.. Would you rate the VA at being very attentive at working with each individual at his/her own level? Or is it cut-throat?
The 5 of us (soon to be 6) are assigned to clinics in different locations. 2 are in a VA hospital, 2 are in a new outpatient clinic, and I am the only one in a more rural outpatient clinic. The two in the hospital share one preceptor, but can work with other providers if they are available, the two in the new outpatient clinic are 1:1, and I have my own preceptor.
I can only speak for my residency program. Mileage may vary. My program is excellent so far. We each go at our own speed. There's no pressure to add more to our patient load. They want us to feel confident in our abilities and not rush. I shadowed last week and started to see patients on my own this week; I saw two patients (one hour slots) per day. One in the morning and one in the afternoon. I feel confident enough to add a third patient when our pharmacy rotation ends in two weeks. By the end of residency, we should be able to see up to 16 patients (30 minute slots) per day; unless it's a new patient, which is a one hour appointment. That is the goal.
I wholly recommend my program to everyone. The director, coordinator, and lead faculty are superb. They are approachable and are truly interested in facilitating our journey to becoming superior clinicians and leaders in nursing. There is so much interest the director might open a Spring cohort. I'll update as I receive new information.
This sounds amazing! Thank you for the information. I just hope all the residencies across the U.S. run this way.
I know the one great thing about the residency is the chance to be exposed to various specialties, of course depending on availability. Besides being put in a general clinic, do they ask you what specialities you might be interested in? I saw on one of the residency announcements they had some specialties listed such as G.I., Nephrology, Orthopedics, ER, etc. that you might be able to go through. Does everybody have to go through each specialty or can you pick a few?
Also, will you be switched at some point with the others (somebody else goes to rural and you go to the new outpatient clinic etc..)?
We all have to go through pharm, pulmonology, urology, GI, and Women's Health rotations. ER, hospitalist, and geriatrics rotations are elective, which I already told them to sign me up. I am interested in derm and I'll update with their response.
You can switch out with someone if you are interested in gaining experience in a different environment. I don't think they would though since it is an hour+ drive from their current locations.
I am so flippin' happy I chose to do this residency instead of going straight into practice. It would be impossible to replicate this education and experience at a regular job.
But at this time, I think it will be a pass for me. If this is how it is to get in, I can only imagine what it will be like once we start.
I thought about that as well. It would probably be a disaster program if they keep delaying the start date. I am sorry it didn't work out for you?, especially how much it negatively impacted your finances, and I hope you do well in your new position. It will be interesting to hear about your experience as well.
I just finished the first week on my pharmacy rotation and it has been awesome! I started the week with a D- knowledge and confidence level and I have definitely catapulted to a B-. My pharmacist is flipping stupendous.
Most of our patients have been diabetics and/or those with HTN. She employs the Socratic Method to fish out my deficiencies, of which there are many. I have to explain mechanism of actions, side effects, and contraindications for each drug class; why choose a certain drug for a condition; which labs to order and why. She likes to pepper me with if/what scenarios. She’s had me interview patients and write up the notes. Whenever I ask her if my care plan is proper, she retorts with, “You tell me”. I give her my answer and she says, “Why?”. Good stuff.
I asked my fellow residents how their experiences are going so far and from what I gather, theirs seems to be more passive and not as active as mine. Personally, I learn from being put on the spot and challenged. It’s terrifying, but that’s my preference. There's only four more days left in the rotation. I wish it was a little longer, but I am grateful there was one in the first place.
I hope everyone is doing well in their residencies!
I've been looking throughout AN, checking out the government/military section and it looks like if you are going to work for the VA, you have to take a physical. Was this also the case for the residency? What was the physical like? Are they really inspecting and you have to be in a gown? Or is it mainly can you bend, push, pull, reach and breathe, and you pass? LOL
Heck no?. We're not joining the military. No physical required when I submitted all my paperwork to HR.
Jazzy MSN APRN NP
8 Posts
Ugh. I hope you hear from someone soon. So frustrating.