Inactive, but wanting to take refresher, work at VA clinic

[Oedgar]

Hi, Everyone. A new VA clinic is being built in my town, and I am wondering what my chances are of getting a job there? At best, it would be a long road. I will explain.

I graduated/obtained my LVN license in 1992. First job was at Texas Children's Hospital, on the Adolescent/Pulmonary Unit. I applied there, thinking it would not be babies, toddlers, and young kids... because at the time I had never even babysat! However, we got plenty of those too. After two years I desired a clinic setting, and moved home to my small town to work for an allergy/asthma specialist. I loved my job. The downside was that I lost many of my skills, working in such a limited setting.

I have been home with my children for 10 years now. License is still current, though I wouldn't dare really try and work after this long. In my area, the only place for LVN's is nursing home or corrections, neither of which I want. But I think working in the outpatient VA setting would be a good thing. Probably enough variety that I would keep learning.

If I were to take a nurse refresher, is there a chance they would hire me, as the equivalent of a new grad and.... older? :) If they did not hire me, at least with the refresher under my belt I would be comfortable working in any physicians office again, and might still look into inpatient or the occasional urgent care jobs I've seen around here.

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

I think a very good strategy would be to take a refresher course, then contact the head of education at the VA and tell them that you'd love to work there and could you do your refresher clinical requirement at the VA? They would have a huge benefit in giving you 80 hours of FREE training, and you would gain a huge foot in the door.

Check the Texas BON. I'm pretty sure that even if you've kept your license current, you have to have 80 hours of clinical in addition to the refresher course if it has been four years or longer since you've worked.

Good luck.