Looking for VA (Veterans Administration) BHIP Nurses

[NCindasun21]

Hello,

Looking for VA BHIP / Mental Health nurses to pick your brains for a Shared Governance project we are working on in my VISN.

We've spent nearly 2 years working from home or rotating into the clinic.  Most Veterans have had no idea we were at home when we were calling or doing VVCs.  Providers were happy as long as there was a nurse available for IVC or vitals and injections.  We are now being told we have to come in full-time because "it isn't fair to the PACT nurses".

Comparing Mental Health and PACT nursing is like comparing apples and oranges.  Mental Health nursing has been really hard for the last two years and we don't see it getting any easier in the near future.  Working from home, even part time, has helped with some of the burnout.  Many of us have to drive 45 minutes to our CBOC so it gives us 1.5 hours back to our day.  We know that the VA is hiring MH RN/Care Managers to work remotely so they must agree on some level that it is possible.  

Curious to hear of your experiences in your VISNs and if teleworking is working for you and why.

Thanks in advance!

 

[16BitSalt, BSN, RN]

VISN 4 here (Pittsburgh). I am part of the provider group for a couple of rural CBOCs in Western PA but we are stationed at one of the main healthcare system campuses. I find it strange that they don't do the same for you guys. We are teleworking temporarily because office space is an issue (two RNs and an LPN with one dedicated cubicle). There is one of us onsite to triage any walk-in patients and the other two telework, it adds up to 2.5-3 weeks of telework per nurse per month. It doesn't affect me too much because I don't have children and the main campus is only 12 minutes from my house, but it has been tremendously beneficial to the other two nurses. 

Do you have an actual walk-in clinic at your site? We work at the campus that has primary care clinics but no dedicated BH clinic, so it doesn't make sense to have three BH nurses to triage one or two patients seeking first-time BH care every 1-2 weeks or so. The other campus, our main hospital, has a dedicated BH clinic and the nurses there do not telework, but they do get to work 10-hour shifts. 

I'm not sure how busy you are in your VISN, but I myself have maybe 2-3 calls and a couple secure messages daily, so we can definitely get away with one nurse on site at a time. Ours is supposedly temporary but they may make it permanent if we want to continue to do it and the on site triage stays slow.