boywithacoin

It's the pay system. From the OPM website: "Some pay plan codes, such as AD, may be used by any agency with an independent authority to administratively determine the rates of pay for any group or category of employees. Each agency must follow its own unique statutory pay authority when setting and adjusting pay under an AD pay system." Most VA nurses are under VN--I think that AD usually designates part-time nurse positions.

The policy is that to advance to Nurse II you need to have a BSN, and to advance to Nurse III you need to have an MSN, but you can currently advance with an academic requirement waiver by one degree. I.e. if you have an AS, you can get an academic requirement waiver to advance from Nurse I to Nurse II, but you would need to get a BSN or higher to advance to Nurse III. If you have a BSN, you can advance from Nurse II to Nurse III on an academic requirement waiver prior to/without getting an MSN. There was talk that they were going to change and not allow academic requirement waivers anymore, but I don't know if that's still going to happen.

Google "Hours of Duty and Leave VA" and you should get a link to view VHA Directive 5011/3. "c. When tours of duty must necessarily vary from the normal tour, employees will be given the opportunity of discussing their assignment and of having their views or personal problems arising in connection with such assignment considered. Tours of duty will not be changed arbitrarily and insofar as possible, employees will be given notice of any change in their work schedule at least one administrative workweek in advance. Sympathetic consideration will be extended to employees who have religious scruples against working on their Sabbath. If practicable, mutually satisfactory exchange of duty assignments may be worked out for such employees or substitute work-time may be provided to offset the time required for religious observance. Insofar as possible, work schedules should be arranged to permit employee's observance of their Sabbath on whatever day it occurs." You should be given that one administrative workweek advance notice, but the way it's worded means that they can give you less notice than that. ?

Pretty sure that AD is the plan that part-time nurses at the VA get hired under, but a quick search on USAJOBS tells me that there are agencies that do hire part-time on the GS scale: IHS and HHS being examples. Dunno that that's very helpful to you, though. But maybe it's applicable?

All your other points aside, would appreciate if you found other ways to express yourself than appropriating indigenous roles and using the term "Indian" for indigenous peoples.

Your pay should match the current year's pay table. If the scales were just updated on 5/26/2023, it may be that pay admin is behind in updating salaries in the pay system. That has happened a few times to me over the years, more so since they centralized HR to the VISN level. You should get backpay to the date the new scale went into effect. Do you have anything in your eOPF about a pay adjustment? Usually titled "Notification of Personnel Action". It will tell you the effective date. I sometimes get the eOPF notification a few weeks in advance of when I actually see the adjustment on my paycheck. That said, I would personally check with my direct manager or payroll specialist.

I am not a PACT RN, but as the saying goes, if you've been to one VA, you've been to one VA. Meaning your role as a PACT RN at your local VA may look different from someone else who might reply here. At my VA, I think the PACT NCMs were able to telework some during COVID; whether they are still letting them, I'm not sure. However, the telework policy that you sign and the TMS learning module you have to do make it very clear that teleworking in order to tend to other life things, like caretaking or whatever, is not allowed. So...I would suggest you don't advertise that ?.

I don't understand how/why my answers keep showing up earlier in the thread instead of below the comments I'm responding to. Does it show up like that for everyone else?

If I understand correctly, you mean Nurse 1, level 2, in which case it's likely that you would start at level 2 regardless if you have a BSN. I believe I've commented elsewhere in this thread that I was hired at a step higher than the other new grads hired at the same time as me who had the same credentials other than the fact that I had been a VALOR student. Hired at N1L2S5 vs step 4 for the other new grad nurses hired at the same time. But your mileage may vary!

For any promotion from one level to the next, you are placed at the steps that corresponds to just greater than the step that is 2 steps above your current step. Does that make sense? so example is if you're a nurse II step 8 and your salary is 100,000, and step 10 is 110,000 and step 11 is 115,000, then when you go up to nurse III, you'll get placed at the step that is at least 110,000, but doesn't go over 115,000.

Also, you can only advance in succession, so if you are Nurse I, you have to get to Nurse II before you can get Nurse III. And again, that's regardless of education (and sometimes experience).

It is not so cut and dry with academic degrees and RN levels at the VA. Grade 1 = Nurse 1, Grade 2 = Nurse 2, and Grade 3 = Nurse 3. If you are a beginning nurse with an associates or BSN, or new to the VA and don't "promote" yourself well enough to be boarded higher, then you will likely start as a Nurse 1, though the level and step will vary based on experience. Nurse 1 is the only grade that has levels: Level 1, Level 2, Level 3. N1L1 is usually a brand new nurse w/ an Associate's. Typically, if you hold a BSN, you will start at a N1L2 or higher. The steps are just the tiered salary increases that can be achieved either through promotion or automatic step increases. You will be placed at the grade, level, and step that the board deems reflective of your experience. The policy is that to advance to Nurse 2 you need to have a BSN, and to advance to Nurse 3 you need to have an MSN, but you can currently advance with an academic requirement waiver by one degree. I.e. if you have an AS, you can get an academic requirement waiver to advance from Nurse 1 to Nurse 2, but you would need to get a BSN or higher to advance to Nurse 3. But if you have a BSN, you can advance from Nurse 2 to Nurse 3 on an academic requirement waiver. Unfortunately, each VA seems to board people completely different and arbitrarily. My first job out of nursing school was at the VA, where I was boarded N1L2S5. I had experience working at a different VA as a VALOR student during nursing school. Other RNs who started at the same time as me who were also right out of nursing school but didn't have VA experience were started at N1L2S4. I have advanced to Nurse 3 with a BSN in the 5+ years I've been here based on my participation in committees, facility-wide nurse engagement, numerous process improvement projects, etc. You're at the mercy of whoever is reviewing your resume/proficiency/whatever when they make board actions because it took me 3 tries to get to Nurse 2 for some reasons that I won't get into here, and by the time I finally did get it, I was already operating at a "Nurse 3" level, so I very easily got my Nurse 3 the following year. Hope this helps some. Bottom line is that you will be boarded based on how your experience is presented (and on the whims of whoever is looking over your resume), but you can also appeal to be placed higher if the offer is a lowball.

I went to nursing school at San Jose State, then moved back to my homestate/town of Portland, OR to start my nursing career. I haven't lived in SJ for almost 4 years, but many of my classmates started their careers there. So, while I can't say how the job search would be currently for a new grad coming from an outside school, I can speak a little about how it was for my classmates. Where will you be moving from? Like everywhere else in the Bay Area, San Jose is pretty expensive, and for some, even though the salaries are a lot higher, they don't necessarily balance out with the high cost of living. That's probably especially true in non-hospital jobs. The thing to keep in mind about San Jose is that, while there are a good number of hospitals in the area, there are a lot of nursing schools in the area, too, with students who do their clinical rotations at all those hospitals and facilities, so they get lots of new grad applicants that already have experience with their policies, EHRs, etc. Plus, I had many classmates who were already working at the hospitals they applied to RN jobs at as patient navigators, CNAs, medical clerks, etc. So you may run up against new grads who edge you out of hospital positions simply due to their clinical rotations at certain facilities. The folks I know who got jobs at hospitals had all done clinical rotations at their respective hospitals except for the folks who did the new grad residency at Good Sam. I know several people from my cohort that got residencies there. I think most people were successful in securing jobs in areas/hospitals they wanted. Some people moved to other locations for residencies or to have an easier time finding a job with a lower cost of living. I know people that went to Florida, Iowa, Las Vegas, etc., and even other locales within California. Do you have any previous health care experience, like as a CNA or navigator? That will help you, I'm sure. Unless you're coming from somewhere with an equally high cost of living, I will say be prepared for a super expensive change. Beef up your resume however you can with relevant experience. Get some good letters of rec from faculty, clinical instructors, deans/directors. Those can also go a long way. Do you know anyone in San Jose currently with a job who can talk you up to their NM?

2080 hours a year (40hrs/wk, 52wks/yr)

Huh? That's strange My facility uses 2080 hours. So did the last VA I got paid at.

Once you hit Nurse I Level 3 Step 8, you go to every other year for automatic step increases. I peaked early because I started at L2 S5, then got my yearly step increase AND promotion to L3 during my first proficiency, which put me at L3S8 my first year. I didn't have enough under my belt to write about for my second proficiency to get Nurse II, so I didn't get another increase for two years. Do all the things you can to get to Nurse II once you hit N1L3!

If you work at a VA as an SNT or VALOR student, or sometimes even as a CNA before getting hired as an RN, they will start you higher depending on the committee that boards you. I started as a new grad RN at L2 S5, but had done a VALOR externship at a different VA and my capstone at another different VA.

Resurrecting this thread to share a funny typo we found from a doctor the other day. Patient was in for an injury they got while doing the deed (aka coitus); doc's note said, "injury sustained while engaging in colitis." YIKES. ??

My floor is almost always adequately staffed. We have a good culture and the folks who work here show up for work and there's not a huge turnover rate. my hospital doesn't have a float pool, though, so when other floors are not adequately staffed, we have to rearrange staffing from other floors to cover it...so that means my staff on my floor floats the most because we're the best staffed.

Same as OUxPhys. I've only ever seen agency CNAs, and even that is rare at my VA.

It's been 3 years since I did it, so I don't remember it super well, but if I recall correctly... They had multiple groups of interviewees come in throughout the day for a specific amount of time. For example, group A came in from 0800 - 0930, group B from 0945 - 1115, group C from 1130 - 1300, etc. (I don't actually remember how long the sessions were, maybe only an hour.) The interviewers were set up on the outer edges of the banquet hall with a few in the middle. We were given a map of which specialties were set up where. There were signs on the floor to designate where to line up for each one. At your given time, the whole group of interviewees (maybe like 50 at a time?? I don't remember) entered the hall and lined up for the interviews. I think they suggested that you have 3-4 in mind with a couple back-ups and go to your top priorities first. Then you just...went to the places you were interested in and gave them your resume and did a short interview...I'm trying to remember if there were set questions that each place asked. I remember it feeling kind of overwhelming and pressured because of the time crunch and people waiting in line behind you. I really didn't like it.

If I don't have an extra 10 seconds to actually watch the waste I just "witnessed," I tell the other RN to find someone else. When I need a witness, I make sure to ask them if they have time to both witness it in the omnicell and watch me waste.

I haven't worked or actually lived in either location, but have spent a lot of time in both places. My grandpa recently passed away and was at Salem Hospital leading up to his death; it's a beautiful hospital and I was impressed by the nursing care he received, and how the nurses communicated with my family. That being said, I would prefer Eugene as a location to live. It's just a little more my style.

OP, please keep us posted.

I'm a night owl anyway, so I maintain my NOC schedule all the time, unless I'm off for an extended period of time or have to be up during the day for something. Switching to a day schedule is really hard on me, and I end up, like you, feeling like I'm sleeping all the time, day and night. Some of my younger coworkers can flip flop back and forth, but it's easy enough for me to just structure my life to a night-time schedule. That being said, supposedly anchoring sleep is very useful for shift workers in making sure they're getting enough quality sleep. You can google it, but basically, it's where you make sure that you're sleeping at the same 3-4 hour time period every day, regardless of whether you're working. So, for example, maybe you sleep from 0800-11000 every day, even on your days off. so your work days could look like sleeping 0800-1600, and your days off look like sleeping 0100-1100. I don't know, I require a lot of sleep regardless of night or day sleeping. Give me 9 hours at least, please.