Nursing at the VA

[EDRNBob]

Hi everyone. I'm a military veteran who has been trying to get into an RN position with the VA for a short time now, and I was browsing current openings and came up with a question.

Every RN job posting that I've seen has a section on how grade is determined. For example,

• Nurse I Level III - An ADN or Diploma in Nursing and approximately 2-3 years of nursing practice/experience; OR an ADN or Diploma in Nursing and a Bachelor's degree in a related field and approximately 1-2 years of nursing practice/experience; OR a BSN with approximately 1-2 years of nursing practice/experience; OR a Master's degree in nursing (MSN) or related field with a BSN and no additional nursing practice/experience.
  
• Nurse II - A BSN with approximately 2-3 years of nursing practice/experience; OR ADN or Diploma in Nursing and a Bachelor's degree in a related field and approximately 2-3 year's of nursing practice/experience; OR a Master's degree in nursing or related field with a BSN and approximately 1-2 year's of nursing practice/experience; OR a Doctoral degree in nursing or meets basic requirements for appointment and has doctoral degree in a related field with no additional nursing practice/experience required.
  
• Nurse III - Master's degree in nursing or related field with BSN and approximately 2-3 year's of nursing practice/experience; OR a Doctoral degree.
  

My question is pretty simple. Suppose I accept a job with the VA, and I have three years experience, but don't yet have a BSN. This would mean I begin my career with the VA at the grade of a Nurse I, Level 3 (see the first underlined section in the quote box).

If I finish my BSN three months after taking the job with the VA, do I automatically get bumped to Nurse II, since I now meet that criteria (see the second underlined section in the quote box)?

And if I then finish my MSN another year later, do I again get bumped up - this time to Nurse III? Again, based on the information given on the matter of grade determination, it seems pretty black and white that I would at that point meet the criteria (see the third underlined section).

The reason I'm asking is because, while it seems pretty cut and dry, it also seems too good to be true that I could very feasibly enter a career with the VA at a given salary, then see a bump of nearly $25,000 in my salary less than two years later, by completing my BSN shortly after being hired (bump #1), and then starting and completing my MSN ~18 months later (bump #2).

But is that actually how it works?

[Been there,done that, ASN, RN]

Only the VA HR can answer this for you. Realize that working for the VA is priceless.

[nursebert, MSN]

There is no automatic promotion to Nurse 2 or 3 solely based on achieving a BSN or MSN. Three years ago I was originally on boarded

as a nurse 1 level 3 step 15 with an ADN and 19 years of experience. Ironically, after I had enrolled in an RN to BSN online program which was unknown to the review board I was promoted to nurse 2 with an education waiver based on my yearly performance evaluation.

It is possible to get a one time education waiver during your career to be promoted to nurse 2 or nurse 3. To achieve nurse 2 your performance must impact your unit and for nurse 3 you must have a positive impact on your organization.

So obtaining an MSN does not guarantee a nurse 3 promotion. You will retain your grade no matter where you transfer or what kind of nursing specialty you work in unlike the Department of Defense which uses GS pay schedule. A nurse in Department of Defense who works ICU is a GS 12, med surg nurse GS 11, and clinic nurse GS 10. GS 12 position pays more than GS 11 which is more than GS 10.

There is no negotiating the initial onboard rating by the Nurse Standards Review Board.

Thank you for your service. I too am a veteran.

[Beatlefan, BSN]

I was basically badgered into getting BSN by my nurse manager. She talked about a bonus upon completion- never happened. She needed more BSNs on her unit to look good for Magnet status.

The VA tells different people different reasons and excuses.