phs_rn

Pretty much everyone comes in as a Nurse 1, I’ve rarely seen anybody come in as a Nurse 2 or Nurse 3. Those two rates are dependent on what you are doing within the VA and are based on your current practice. The very simplified version is that for a Nurse 2 you need to do a job and have an impact on the unit or department level, and for a Nurse 3 you need to do a job and have an impact on the department or institution level. Now, as you have noticed Nurse 1 does have three different levels which are based on entry degree for the most part: Nurse 1-1 would be a new grad with an ADN, Nurse 1-2 would be a new grad with a BSN, and Nurse 1-3 would be a new grad with an MSN. Coming in as a Nurse 1-3 Step 9 seems like they have you just about every piece of credit that they could have given you, so depending on the actual job you would be doing it seems pretty fair to me.

If you get into IHS I would highly recommend continuing to apply to the Corps. The application process is twofold anyway: you have to apply for a commission, and you have to separately apply for a position to commission into. If you have a civil service position in IHS you can then apply to the Corps and then put in the paperwork to convert in place. For the gestational diabetes you could then try to apply for a waiver. If you are already in IHS the worst outcome would be for them to deny the waiver, and you just keep on being civil service with nothing lost.

Good luck! Be patient, it’s still a drawn out process.

Part of it will depend on what they consider as your qualifying degree for joining as an officer, at least that’s how they calculate rank for PHS. I joined as a BSN with 8 years ADN experience and 2 years BSN experience. I got 4 years Training & Experience Credit for the BSN, and 2 years credit for my time as a BSN. ADN time didn’t count, because clearly practicing as a BSN was at such an advanced level that the ADN time just can’t compare (as someone who held every certification/license from CNA through LPN to now MSN I have certain feelings about the validity of that thought, but oh well). But for many services, if you commission on as a Bachelor’s prepared RN they will only count that training and time. For NP they would likely give you credit for time spend working on your Bachelors as well as Masters in addition to post-bachelors work experience.

If you are still interested in the USPHS Corps, we have opened up recruiting and greatly improved our application process. We now have a web-based portal to begin the process.