Portland, OR VA Hospital

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Hello,

I was offered a position at the VA (surgical unit- transplant, cardiac tele). I was wondering if anyone has any experience working at the VA or knows of anyone who has? The whole salary thing is odd. I am not even sure what a new grad nurse starts at yet? Anyways, I hear it is a great place to work once you get used to it. Plus, the loan forgiveness aspect is a bonus. Thank you for your time.

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I don't work for the VA but I work for IHS so both federal jobs. Take it for sure! The benefits are great. And invest as much as you can in your TSP!

Also, you work at a grade/step level. Your experience determines this. I'm a GS6 step 1.

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Thanks for your positive energy and encouragement! I am battling between this and a NEW Grad Residency Program...I am also learning that the VA hiring process takes FOREVER. I am excited to move forward. Cheers!

I don't work for the VA but I work for IHS so both federal jobs. Take it for sure! The benefits are great. And invest as much as you can in your TSP!

Also, you work at a grade/step level. Your experience determines this. I'm a GS6 step 1.

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Specializes in Care Coordination, General Surgery, Oncology.

Hi. I replied to another comment of yours in a different post about VA Pay scales.

Nurses (and certain other health care workers) at the VA get paid on a different scale than most other government employees. We work on what's called the Title 38 pay scale as opposed to the GS pay scale.

If you haven't yet, look at the Title 38 pay schedules for nurses in Oregon. They haven't posted the locality adjustments for 2017 yet, so this is not accurate for what you'll be hired at, but you can see what the salaries have been for 2016 (and you can look at previous years as well).

As far as how long the hiring process at the VA takes....yes, it can take a long time! For me, it took just under 12 weeks from the time I interviewed to my start date. Part of what took some time was that it was right at the beginning of summer, so I had to deal with my HR rep going on vacation and some of my references going out of town, but the boarding process also took awhile. Although I had no previous experience as an RN, I had been a VALOR student nurse extern at a different VA, and had done my senior preceptorship at another VA, so it took some time to determine what step to board me at. In contrast, I was talking to another nurse who was recently hired to my floor as a new grad with absolutely no experience, and her process took only a few weeks (less than or around one month).

Good luck!

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Specializes in Care Coordination, General Surgery, Oncology.

Also, you might post your Portland/Oregon specific questions in the Oregon Nursing forum. I like to answer questions or help people find answers as I'm able, but the search function on allnurses leaves a lot to be desired, so I generally focus my attention to the Oregon forum (since that's where I'm from/work) and the Government/Military Nursing forum (since I work at the VA). I've had pretty good luck getting responses on the Oregon forum when I've posted things about different new grad residencies, etc.

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