NurseStephen

OK. With a BSN, you are looking at a Nurse 2. With Nurse 2, there are 12 steps...one of which you will be put on. For instance, you may be a Nurse 2, Step 6 (or whatever you are brought in at). To understand what pay you may get, you can visit the Title 38 pay scales VA website for Texas here - https://www.VA.gov/OHRM/Pay/2024/LPS/TX.xls. When you open it, look down the first column and go to 671 (for San Antonio). If you are going to work at the main hospital campus and not a clinic in another city, then only look at 671 (not with additional letters behind it). Then, look for the registered nurse pay scale, then look for Nurse 2. This will show you what Steps 1-12 pay are. The link is to 2024 rates. Please note that the US President issued a 1.7% increase to each pay step for 2025 rates. The step is going to be determined by the manager based on several different things...years of experience is just one. Some facilities (very few) grant waivers to Nurse 3. I am not sure if San Antonio does this...but I would not bet on it. Hope this helps!

CCNE is a national accreditation and will be fine when transitioning schools.

I think this is dependent on what you see yourself doing in the future. If you see yourself staying in nursing management, then a MSN in Leadership is fine. You will learn a lot about leadership, nursing budgeting, and policy. If you want to move to a more executive nursing leadership role or see yourself leading disciplines outside of nursing, then having a MHA or MBA would be beneficial. The MBA will teach you a lot about finance and strategy. I hear the MHA is preferred for more hospital leadership, like CEOs/COOs. I personally went through the MSN leadership route and then went back for a MBA to get better competencies with hospital finances.

The VA Nurse Qualification Standards changed in January 2024. There are no longer 9 dimensions to write to (now down to 5 woo hoo!) and no longer any nurse professional standards board. During the actual onboarding process, HR will send you a worksheet to fill out. Make sure to fill it completely out and return it back before the due date! HR will then send that information to the selecting official (usually a nurse manager) to review and set the pay based on the completed documents. It then goes through a robust approval process and you will be provided your pay. Nurses must be reviewed by nurses, so your pay will never be set by just HR. Hope this helps!

Thanks for sharing. The extra workload seems to be the biggest concern. If you haven't already, I would recommend just sharing your concerns about the workload and your current situation to your supervisor. If you feel you need union support, by all means, invite them to the meeting with your supervisor. Remember, the important part is that your supervisor wants to retain you and not see you leave. Just open the conversation. good luck!

Honestly, I felt the same way my first semester. Talked with others and discovered that the imposter syndrome is real and affects a lot of returning students. You got this. Just breathe and push through it.

No. The Joint Commission would not report a violation to the Board of Nursing. They would defer to the facility to make the reporting.

I obtained a MBA after my MSN. I wanted a broader knowledge on financial management and organization-wide perspectives. The program was beneficial and I believe will open more doors to executive-level opportunities.

@BJPMH & @Mergirlc - Yes, a MSN from a Bridge Program with No RN experience would be a Nurse 1 Level 3. If there was at least 1 year experience, then probable entry to a Nurse 2.

The best thing I can tell you is that your examples need to be focused on how your actions affected the service (Nursing Department) or the organization as a whole. For Research, if you did a literature review and changed your practice with your patient (Nurse 1 example). If you then shared the information you learned with your unit’s coworkers through a discussion or presentation (Nurse 2). If you created a poster or did a presentation for multiple units (ICU, Med/Surg, ED, etc) (Nurse 3). Make sure to broaden it out and see how it affects the most people. Good Luck @Eloisa

Helpful hints: You have 9 dimensions of nursing practice you must discuss. Make sure that you put in an example of how you affected the unit on each 9 dimensions. If you talk about what you did for your patient only, that only meets a Nurse 1. This gets difficult for the ethics and resource utilization domains. Don’t be generic “I stayed up to date with TMS, BLS, etc.” Be specific about what you did for the unit. Hope this helps!

Most VA nursing positions are in the Excepted Service. If you compare the benefit, leave, and promotion capabilities, you want to stick with the Excepted service.

Yes, fingerprinting, as well as multiple proof of US citizenship, is required for employment at the VA.

I am not quite sure of your new position, but it is very common at my facility to share full detail calendars with supervisors and co-workers. For me, it is an easy glance to see when my supervisor is available to meet and the same vice versa. Let's face it, most of our days are filled with never ending meetings anyway. I hope this helps!

Just remember: PRN nurses do make more money, but they are not offered benefits (hence why they are paid more).